Thalassery court awards life imprisonment to seven RSS-BJP workers for murdering CPI (M) functionary

Thiruvananthapuram: A court in Thalassery on Wednesday awarded life imprisonment to seven RSS-BJP workers for murdering a CPI (M) functionary, Parakandy Pavithran, in Kannur district on November 6, 2007.

A fine of Rs 1 lakh each was slapped on convicts namely, CK Prashanth, Laiju, Vineesh, Prashanth alias Muthu, KC Anil Kumar, Vijilesh and K Mahesh, by the additional district sessions court judge PN Vinod.

The prosecution case is that Pavithran was walking to buy milk at 5:45 am on the fateful day, when he was attacked by the assailants. He suffered serious injuries and was hospitalised. He died on the fourth day of the attack.

The special prosecutor Vinod Kumar Chambalon told Mirror that the court took at face value deposition of second witness and Pavithran's son Vipin, who was 29-years-old at the time of the incident.

Vipin was the sole eyewitness in the case. The defence argued that it was dark at the time when Pavithran was attacked and hence, the prosecution charge against the accused cannot be relied upon.

"We impressed upon the court that there was twilight before sunrise and the fact that Pavithran was not carrying a torchlight itself proves there was enough light," Vinod Kumar said.

The CPI (M) Thalassery area secretary MC Pavithran said that on the eve of Parakandy Pavithran's murder, another CPI (M) worker named Sudhir Kumar was murdered by RSS men. The party had announced a hartal. It was on the hartal day that Pavithran was attacked. It is understood that following Sudhir Kumar's murder, there were widespread clashes between the two rival parties, leading to Pavithran's death.