The Thiruvananthapuram Additional Sessions Court on Monday sentenced 11 RSS workers to double life imprisonment for the murder of CPI(M) activist Vishnu of Kannanmoola eight years ago.
VIshnu was hacked to death by suspected RSS workers on 1 April 2008. The prime accused, armed with swords, rods and other weapons attacked Vishnu and murdered him.
The court had earlier convicted 13 RSS workers for the crime. The remaining two convicts were awarded life imprisonment and a three-year jail sentence respectively.
There were 16 accused in the case as per the chargesheet, out of which one was acquitted, one was himself murdered, and one is still absconding.
Vishnu used to help people who came to collect their passports and knowing this, the attackers laid siege and assaulted him at the Passport office. He was killed in front of the Passport office at Kaithamukku.
One week before Vishnu was killed, there was a petrol bomb attack on the RSS office at West Fort. Police found that Vishnu’s killing was to avenge that attack, which the RSS had suspected to be the handiwork of CPI(M).
The RSS also suspected that Vishnu was responsible for manhandling their workers who arrived in court to give statements in a few political cases.
Police said RSS workers believed that Vishnu was involved in attacks on RSS men in the locality since 2001 and was accused in three such cases.
The Convicts and the Investigation
Santosh, a former student chairman of MG college, Manoj alias Kakkotta Manoj, Binukumar, Harilal, Renjith Kumar, Balu Mahendra, Vipin, Satheesh Kumar, Bose and Manikantan are among those convicted for murder, rioting, conspiracy and unlawful assembly.
According to the chargesheet, the assailants met at the Temple Protection Council office at Mithranandapuram on 1 April and then moved in six motorbikes to track Vishnu. The murder in broad daylight was witnessed by almost 500 people, according to the police. Vishnu suffered more than 30 injuries on his body.
Vishnu, who had connections with the underworld, was a target of many rival gangs. The police had initially suspected that a rival gang could have been behind his murder.
The police zeroed in on the RSS workers after tracing more than 50,000 mobile phone calls.
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