In a chilling incident that sent shockwaves through Kerala in 2021, Ranjith Sreenivasan was brutally murdered in his Alappuzha home in front of his family. The gruesome act took place on December 19, with police later revealing that 15 convicts associated with the Popular Front of India (PFI), a controversial Muslim group, were involved. The convicts can now appeal against their sentences in a higher court, following their conviction by a sessions court in Alappuzha on January 20, 2024.
Sreenivasan’s wife, Lisha, expressed both the irreparable loss suffered by their family and a sense of relief at the verdict. The court had awarded the death penalty to the culprits, highlighting the severity of the crime. The victim’s murder was particularly horrifying as it unfolded in front of his mother, wife, and daughter.
During the police investigation, it was revealed that eight of the 15 convicts were directly implicated in the murder, while the others served as guards armed with weapons outside Sreenivasan’s house. Shockingly, some of the perpetrators were affiliated with the banned PFI, while others belonged to its political unit, the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI). The PFI was officially banned by the BJP-led federal government in 2022, citing alleged links with terror groups.
The context surrounding Sreenivasan’s murder added another layer of complexity to the case. His killing occurred shortly after the murder of SDPI leader KS Shan in Alappuzha. An investigation report suggested that Shan’s murder was a retaliatory act for the killing of an activist from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological fountainhead of the Hindu nationalist BJP. The police chargesheet filed in Shan’s murder implicated 21 individuals, including five RSS workers who were initially arrested but later released on bail. The trial for their case is scheduled to begin next month.
The back-to-back murders of Sreenivasan and Shan not only deeply impacted the local community in Kerala but also garnered national attention. The intricate web of connections between political and religious groups adds a layer of complexity to these shocking events, leaving the public anxiously awaiting the upcoming trial and hoping for justice to prevail.
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