9 RSS Workers Sentenced to Life for 2005 Murder of CPI(M) Worker in Kerala

Kannur: Nine RSS workers were sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in Thalassery on Tuesday for the murder of a CPI(M) worker in this north Kerala district 19 years ago.

Rijith Sankaran, a 25-year-old CPI(M) member from Kannapuram Chunda, was attacked and killed near a temple in Chunda on October 3, 2005 allegedly by RSS workers during a period of political tension between the two parties in the area.

Rijith was walking home when the accused, armed with weapons, ambushed him and his friends near a well. Three of his friends were injured in the attack.

On January 4, the Additional District Sessions Court in Thalassery found the accused guilty. There were a total of 10 accused in the case, one of whom had died in a road accident.

The convicts include Sudhakaran (57), Jayesh (41), Ranjith (44), Ajeendran (51), Anilkumar (52), Rajesh (46), Sreekanth (47), his brother Sreejith (43), and Bhaskaran (67).

The court found them guilty under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including murder (Section 302), attempted murder (Section 307), unlawful assembly (Section 143), rioting (Section 147), wrongful restraint (Section 341), and voluntarily causing hurt with weapons (Section 324).