By India Today News Desk
In Short
- Nine RSS workers get life for 2005 murder
- CPI(M) worker Rijith killed during political clash
- Verdict highlights decades-old tensions in Kannur
Nine Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) workers were sentenced to life imprisonment by a Thalassery court on Tuesday for the murder of CPI(M) worker Rijith Sankaran, a crime committed 19 years ago in the politically volatile Kannur district of Kerala. Rijith, a 25-year-old CPI(M) member from Kannapuram Chunda, was ambushed and killed near a temple in Chunda on October 3, 2005.
The attack occurred during a period of heightened political tension between the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Rijith was walking home when a group of RSS workers, armed with weapons, attacked him and his friends near a well. While Rijith succumbed to his injuries, three of his friends were injured in the assault.
On January 4, the Additional District Sessions Court in Thalassery found the accused guilty. Out of the 10 people initially charged, one had died in a road accident during the pendency of the case. The nine convicted individuals include Sudhakaran (57), Jayesh (41), Ranjith (44), Ajeendran (51), Anilkumar (52), Rajesh (46), Sreekanth (47), his brother Sreejith (43), and Bhaskaran (67).
The court convicted them under several sections of the Indian Penal Code, including Section 302 (murder), Section 307 (attempted murder), Section 143 (unlawful assembly), Section 147 (rioting), Section 341 (wrongful restraint), and Section 324 (voluntarily causing hurt with weapons).
This story was originally published in indiatoday.in.
