Former Inspector General of Police K. Lakshmana, now 75, was found guilty of murdering the Maoist leader A Varghese by special court judge S Vijayakumar a day earlier.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on him, which is to be handed over to Varghese’s family. On Lakhmana’s plea, the court sent him to the Central Jail in Thiruvananthapuram instead of the sub-jail here.

The case cropped up in 1998 when retired Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) constable Ramachandran Nair came on television saying he shot Varghese dead on Feb. 18, 1970, as Lakshmana threatened to kill him if he refused to do that.

Soon brothers and friends of Varghese moved the High Court which ordered CBI to investigate the case. The probe revealed that Varghese was captured, tortured and killed in the Thirunelli forests of the hilly Wayanad district.

Welcoming the verdict, Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan, himself a victim of custodial torture during the peasant uprising of the 1940s, said: “This is the triumph of justice and a warning against the oppressive state machinery.” The CBI court observed that there was ample evidence to prove that Nair shot Varghese to death on the command of Lakshmana, who was a deputy superintendent of police (DySP) then.

A remorseful Nair, the first defendant in the case, died in 2006 while the third defendant P Vijayan, 83, the then deputy inspector general (DIG), was acquitted on benefit of doubt.

The court relied on the testimony of Nair’s colleague AK Mohammed Haneef who was present on the site with Nair and two other constables and Prabhakara Warrier, a classmate of Verghese and agricultural laborer Jogi who saw Varghese alive in police custody.

Lakshmana, who led the crackdown on the Maoists in 1970s, was also accused of role in the mysterious disappearance of engineering student Rajan after he was picked up by police during Emergency. He was later exonerated in the case.

“It is proved beyond any shadow of reasonable doubt that Varghese, who was caught alive, was brutally killed. It is thus satisfied that the theory of Varghese's death in police encounter is an advance defense molded as a pretext to commit the crime,” the court observed. “The offense of murder had been committed as good as by the second accused.” The judge also said that the chances of the Naxalite leader, who was alone in the forest, engaging in an encounter with a team of armed policemen “were remote.” Lakshmana told the court that he was in his seventies and maximum leniency and humanitarian consideration should be given to him.

Public prosecutor Vaikom Purshothamana Nair urged the court to give the accused the maximum punishment of death as this was not a rarest of rare cases as a common man was branded as a Maoist and taken to Thirunelly forests and shot him dead in cold blood with his hands tied.

“It’s proved beyond any shadow of reasonable doubt that Varghese who was caught hold of live was brutally killed by the first accused who was a stooge at the hands of Lakshmana who on his order brought about his plan,” the court had observed while pronouncing that he was guilty.

Thomas, Varghese's brother told reporters that he and his family had mixed feelings about the verdict. Though the family was satisfied with the life imprisonment handed over to Lakshmana, they were unhappy with the acquittal of former DGP P Vijayan.

Varghese’s colleague K Ajitha, who is now a leading women’s rights activist, said the verdict was significant since such fake encounters were still happening in states like Jammu and Kashmir and West Bengal.