Kannur: In the murder case of BJP-RSS worker Muzhappulangad Sooraj in Kerala’s Kannur district, the Thalassery Principal Sessions Court awarded life sentences to eight convicts, who were CPI(M) workers and convicted by the court a few days ago. In the nearly 20-year-old murder case, it was the accused number 2 to 9 who were awarded life sentences while accused number 1 died during the trial.
It was August 7, 2005, a group hacked Sooraj on the morning. He had faced a similar attempt six months before that. According to the prosecution, Sooraj was a CPI(M) worker before but joined the BJP and was hacked to death over political rivalry.
The court had examined a total of 28 witnesses and 51 documents. When the murder case was registered against 12 CPI(M) workers, who were also charged with conspiracy, two of them passed away shortly after Sooraj’s murder, Mathrubhumi reported.
The accused number 1, also accused in T P Chandrasekharan murder case, T K Rajeesh, the fifth accused and Chief Minister's Press Secretary PM Manoj's brother Manoraj Narayanan, NV Yagesh, K. Shamjith, Neyyoth Sajeevan, Prabhakaran, KV Padmanabhan, and Manombeth Radhakrishnan were sentenced to life imprisonment. The court has also sentenced the eleventh accused, Pradeepan, to three years in prison.