Kozhikode (Kerala): In a setback to CPI (M) in Kerala, three of its local functionaries and eight others were today sentenced to life imprisonment by a special court in the sensational T P Chandrasekharan murder case.
In a keenly awaited verdict, judge R Narayana Pisharodi held “political animosity” as the motive for the murder of the CPI (M) rebel who floated the Revolutionary Marxist Party challenging the parent party's supremacy in the red fortress Onchiyam in Kozhikode district in north Kerala. One of the 12 found guilty in the case was given three years imprisonment.
Noting that the deceased was the leader of “an emerging political party”, the judgement said “motive of the crime was political animosity...”
The judge held that the first seven accused, who executed the murder, were “tools in the hands of the persons who entertained political enmity towards the deceased”.
They were found guilty under IPC sections 302 (murder), 143 (unlawful assembly) and 147 (rioting).
One of the 12 accused found guilty by the special judge was awarded three years' imprisonment.
