The Kerala High Court on Monday upheld and confirmed the death sentence awarded to Mohammed Ameer-Ul-Islam, a migrant worker from Assam for raping and murdering Jisha, a law college student at Perumbavoor in April 2016.
The Ernakulam Sessions Court where the trial took place had slapped death sentence on Ammer-Ul-Islam for the gruesome act describing it as a rarest of rare cases. The Sessions Court had found that the death was caused due to smothering, strangulation, multiple injuries to neck, abdomen and external genitalia which were sufficient in the ordinary cause of nature to cause death. The Court stated that the facts established by the prosecution fully established the guilt of the accused and the chain of circumstances was also complete.
The brutal acts of the convict definitely fit this case within the umbrella of "rarest of rare cases" on par with the Nirbhaya's case in Delhi, the trial court had said in its judgment. The Division Bench comprising Justices P B Suresh Kumar and S Manu concurred with the observations of the trial court and confirmed that Ameer-Ul-Islam should hang. Ameer-Ul Islam was found guilty and convicted for death penalty by Ernakulam Session/Special Judge For Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Attrocities) Act, 1989 under sections 449 (trespass), 342 (wrongful confinement), 302 (punishment for murder) and 376 (punishment for rape) and Section 376 A (punishment for causing death or resulting in persistent vegetative state of victim) of the Indian Penal Code.
According to the prosecution, the accused under the influence of alcohol criminally trespassed into the residence of the victim in Perumbavoor in Ernakulam district on April 28, 2016. The accused attempted to rape her and when she resisted, he brutally murdered her. She sustained 38 injuries and was also inflicted with grievous injuries
The victim was doing her LLB Course at Government Law College, Ernakulam, and lived with her mother.
After the crime, the accused escaped to Assam but he was arrested by the Kerala Police based on the DNA samples collected from the spot of murder and a spectacular tracking which took them from Perumbavoor to a far away village in Assam.
While the Special Public Prosecutor N K Unnikrishnan expressed satisfaction over the High Court decision, B Aloor, lawyer for the accused, said that the Division Bench did not consider some of the points furnished by him and the decision would be challenged in the Supreme Court.