A sessions court in Kasaragod on Thursday sentenced four Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh associated men to life imprisonment for the April 2008 murder of a 56-year-old Muslim man, who was the mosque committee president in the region, in front of his son.
Kasaragod Additional Sessions Court – II Judge Priya K sentenced Santhosh Naik (37) of Kudlu village, K. Sivaprasad (41) of Adkathbail village, Ajithkumar K. (36) of Kudlu village, and K.G. Kishorkumar (40) for the murder of C.M. Mohammed Kunhi (56), the president of Bilal Mosque in Adkathbail, Kasaragod town.
Mohammed Kunhi was the fourth person killed in the 2008 violence, where at least four people lost their lives over five days. Adv CK Sreedharan, ace criminal lawyer and Special Public prosecutor in the case, told OnManorama that this is the first conviction in a communal murder case in Kasaragod in more than a decade and a half.
In the initial years of the case, the Hindutva men were represented by senipr BJP leader P S Sreedharan Pillai. After he became the Governor of Goa, his junior Adv Joseph from Kozhikode and Adv P Murali from Kasaragod defended the four accused.
On Friday, April 18, 2008, Bilal Mosque president C.A. Mohammed was on his way to prayers via Gudde Temple Road when the four Hindutva men ambushed him. Two of them restrained his arms while the other two fatally stabbed him. Mohammed died on the spot. His son, Shihab, who was walking a few steps behind, witnessed the murder. Shihab and another pedestrian who saw the crime served as the prosecution’s eyewitnesses.
This story was originally published in maktoobmedia.com.