The Prosecution on Thursday requested the Special Additional Sessions Court in Kozhikode to award death sentence to all the 12 found guilty by it the other day in the sensational case pertaining to the murder of rebel Marxist leader TP Chandrasekharan of Onchiyam in Kozhikode district. The court will announce the quantum of punishment on January 28.
Stating that the case deserved to be put in the rarest of rare category, the Prosecution during the final arguments over the punishment to be awarded said that death sentence be awarded not only to the seven men who had hacked Chandrasekharan to death but also to those who had been found guilty of taking part in the conspiracy behind the murder.
Those who were found guilty of conspiracy by the court were CPI(M) leaders eighth accused KC Ramachandran, 11th accused “Trouser” Manoj and 13th accused PK Kunhananthan. On Wednesday, the court had convicted 12 of the total 36 accused in the case and acquitted the remaining 24, including CPI(M)’s Kozhikode district secretariat member P Mohanan.
Countering the Prosecution arguments, the counsel for the accused said that the case could not be included in the rarest of rare category and requested the court not to award harsh punishment to them. He also said that those who had been found guilty of hacking the rebel leader to death were young and that they should be given opportunity to correct their mistakes.
Judge R Narayana Pisharody, who recorded the statements of the convicts by calling them to his desk, said in the open court that 11 of the 12 convicts had committed crimes that could attract death sentence. The crime of ‘lambu’ Pradeepan, the 31st accused, could attract imprisonment for seven years, he said.
Kunhananthan, a member of the CPI(M) area committee in Panur, Kannur district, told the judge that he was an ailing person and that he had never been involved in any other criminal case. Stating that all the witness statements against him were fabricated, he prayed to the court to be considerate while awarding punishment as his wife was alone at the house.
Chandrasekharan (51), a popular communist leader in the Kozhikode district, was brutally hacked to death - he was hacked in the face and head 51 times - by a seven-man Marxist killer gang on the night of May 4, 2012 at Vallikkad near his village, Onchiyam. The court had the other day found all the seven members of the gang guilty of the crime.
The Prosecution had argued that Chandrasekharan was murdered by the killer gang as per the instructions of the CPI(M) leadership which was intolerant of his popularity.