The sentencing of the CPM workers found guilty in the murder case of BJP worker Sooraj from Muzhappilangad will take place today. The Thalassery Principal Sessions Court will pronounce the punishment for the accused. Among the nine convicted are T.K. Rajesh (a convict in the T.P. Chandrasekharan murder case), Manoj Narayanan (brother of the Kerala Chief Minister’s Press Secretary P.M. Manoj), and former CPM local secretaries Prabhakaran and Padmanabhan.
One person was acquitted by the court. The case alleges that Sooraj was hacked to death due to his defection from the CPM to the BJP. The murder took place on August 7, 2005. Five of the accused were found guilty of murder, while four others were convicted of conspiracy. CPM district secretary M.V. Jayarajan recently stated that the accused are innocent and will file an appeal.
Sooraj had previously been attacked by CPM workers six months before the murder, leaving him bedridden with leg injuries. He was 32 years old at the time of his death. Initially, the police charged ten people in the case, but T.K. Rajesh’s confession in the T.P. Chandrasekharan case led to the addition of two more accused, including Manoj Narayanan.
The first accused in the case is T.K. Rajesh. The other accused are N.V. Yagesh, K. Shamjith, Neyyoth Sajeevan, Panickantraveettil Prabhakaran, Puthusheri K.V. Padmanabhan, Manombeth Radhakrishnan, Nagathankotta Prakashan, and Puthiyapura Pradeepan. The police charged the accused under sections related to conspiracy and murder.
The first accused, P.K. Shamsuddin, and the twelfth accused, T.P. Ravindran, had passed away earlier, reducing the number of accused to ten.
