Kevin murder a case of honour killing

Court finds 10, Neenu’s brother guilty, acquits her father

The Principal Sessions Court, Kottayam, on Thursday found the murder of Kevin P. Joseph, a 23-year old Dalit Christian, to be a case of honour killing and convicted 10 persons in connection with it.

Pronouncing the judgment, judge C. Jayachandran accepted the prosecution’s argument that racial prejudice was the motive behind the youth’s murder, making it the first ever case of honour killing to be reported in the State.

The court also found 10 of the accused, including the brother of victims spouse Neenu, guilty of murder (IPC 302) and abduction (IPC 364 A).

According to Special Prosecutor C.S. Ajayan, there was no precedent in any of the courts to invoke IPC 364 A (abduction in order to compel any other person to do or abstain from doing any act).

The convicted

Those convicted were identified as Syanu Chacko, Niyas Mon, Ishan Ismayil, Riyas Ibrahimkutty, Manu Muraleedharan, Shifin Sajjad, N. Nishad, Tittu Jerome, Fazil Sherif, and Shanu Shahjahan. Among the accused, Syanu, Niyas, and Riyas were also found guilty of criminal conspiracy under IPC 120 B.

Further, Niyas, Riyas, Manu, Tittu, Fazil and Shanu were found guilty under IPC Sections 449 (house trespass), 427(causing damage), 341( wrongful restraint) and IPC 34(Acts in furtherance of common intention).

Nishad and Shanu were also convicted under IPC Sections 123 ( concealing of design ). Shifin, on the other hand, was also convicted under IPC 201 for causing disappearance of evidence.

The court, however, acquitted four persons, including Chacko John, father of Neenu. The other persons acquitted were identified as Vishnu alias Appunni, Shinu Shahjahan and Remees Sherif.

The quantum of sentence to the guilty will be pronounced after a hearing to be held on Saturday.

During the trial, the prosecution had requested the court to consider the crime as a case of honour killing, pointing to the Supreme Court order in March which put in place punitive, preventive and remedial guidelines to tackle ‘honour killings’.

The case

According to the prosecution, first accused Syanu Chacko, Neenu’s brother, and their father and fifth accused Chacko John were against Neenu marrying Kevin, who was a Dalit Christian. To buttress the argument, it also quoted a statement in this regard by Lijo and Neenu, two key witnesses in the case and pleaded the court to consider it as a rarest of rare case.

The counsel of the accused, however, objected to this by citing that Chacko John had agreed to marry his daughter off to Kevin during a reconciliation talk held at the Gandhinagar police station.

As per the case, a gang led by Syanu Chacko abducted Kevin from Gandhi Nagar and took him to Thenmala on May 27, last year and chased him to a stream at Chaliyakkara, near Thenmala, with an intention to kill him.

Two days before the death, Kevin and Neenu had filed a joint application for marriage. While Neenu was sent to a hostel thereafter, Kevin shifted to the residence of Aneesh, one of his relatives. Though the duo was abducted from there, Aneesh was let off later.

Speedy trial

The special investigation team led by Dy. SP Girish P. Sarathy, which probed the case, submitted the charge-sheet on August 21, 2018.

The trial in the case began on April 24 with the examination of witnesses, followed by examination of the accused.

Except for a 10-day break in May, the hearing was conducted without any interruptions and the trial proceedings drew to a close on July 30, in a record time of just over three months.

Source: Read Full Article