In the Periya murder case, 10 accused were awarded double life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 2 lakh each. The other accused have to serve 5 years imprisonment each. The order belongs to the Ernakulam Special CBI Court.
The court sentenced the 1st to 8th accused A Peethambaran, Saji C George, KM Suresh, K Anil Kumar, Jijin, R Sreerag, A Ashwin, Subish, and the tenth accused Ranjith and the fifteenth accused A Surendran with double life imprisonment. A fine of Rs.2 lakh each shall also be imposed.
The 14th accused K Manikandan, 20th accused KV Kunhiraman, 21st accused Raghavan Velutholi and 22nd accused KV Bhaskaran were sentenced to five years in prison. The other two accused were sentenced to 5 years imprisonment and a fine of Rs. A special court in Ernakulam had found 14 people guilty in the case with a total of 24 accused. The court also acquitted ten people, including those accused by the CBI.
Fourteen people found guilty were sentenced today. During the sentencing hearing, the accused requested the court to award the minimum sentence. But the demand of CBI was to give death penalty. First the local police, then the crime branch and finally the CBI investigated the case. The court found that only one person included in the CBI charge-sheet was involved in the murder.
