A Kerala court on Friday, January 10, convicted eight BJP-RSS workers in the 2013 murder of CPI(M) activist Sreekumar near Trivandrum’s Alamcode. The victim was beaten and stabbed to death in a case tied to a financial dispute.
Thiruvananthapuram Additional District and Sessions Judge IV, Aaj Sudarsan, found five individuals—Shambhu Kumar alias Shambhu, Sreejith alias Unni, Harikumar, Chandramohan alias Ambili, and Santhosh alias Chandu—guilty of murder under the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Three others—Abhishek alias Anni Santhosh, Prashanth alias Pazhinji Prashanth, and Sajeev—were found guilty of being part of the criminal conspiracy.
The sentencing will be announced on January 15.
The prosecution stated that the killing of Sreekumar, also known as Ashokan, was triggered by a financial dispute between one of the accused, Shambhu, and Sreekumar’s friend, Aad Binu. Sreekumar had intervened in the dispute, causing injuries to Shambhu, which led to a retaliatory plan. The eight accused attacked and killed Sreekumar on May 5, 2013, near Alamcode.
The court acquitted eight other individuals who had been charged with destruction of evidence and assisting the attackers in fleeing, due to insufficient evidence.
The prosecution presented 45 witnesses and 110 documents in support of its case.
