Five persons found guilty in BJP activist’s murder

THRISSUR: The Irinjalakkuda Additional district judge G Gopakumar on Friday pronounced five persons guilty in the Vasupuram Abhilash murder case. The accused who have been pronounced guilty are Shanto alias Shantappan (first accused), who is a student of Thrissur government law college, Jith (second accused) who was working as data entry operator, Dennis (third accused) who was engaged in contract work , Sivadas (fourth accused ) who runs a workshop and Rajan (seventh accused), who is an auto driver.
The judge will pronounce the sentence for the accused on August 16.Abhilash, who was a BJP activist was murdered on the Onam day (August 28) last year, and the accused persons were associated with the CPM. He was murdered within hours after the murder of a CPM member, reportedly by RSS members, at Kasargod. There were 18 accused in the case and the judge let off the remaining 13 as they were not found guilty,
The special prosecutor A Sureshan has appealed to the court to give maximum punishment to the accused including death penalty to the first accused.
Abhilash, who had launched a BMS union of auto drivers in the area, was murdered in a heinous way after chopping off his legs and palms. Abhilash was having lunch with the first witness in the case when the accused came in a group and challenged him to come out. He was hacked when stepped out. The BJP district president A Nagesh had alleged that it was a planned murder by the CPM, and there was no immediate provocation for it. However, Minister A C Moideen , who was then the CPM district secretary had denied that there was no political angle to the murder and the BJP was trying to rake up an issue that was completely non-political in nature.