THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A Kerala court on Thursday sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment all the 63 but one accused in the killings of Hindu anglers on the Marad beach six years back.
Eight fishermen were done to death in a swift attack by a group came from the sea in a boat on May 2, 2003 in retaliation to the previous year’s revenge killings. A Muslim assailant also died in the attack accidentally.
Additional Sessions Judge (Special Court) Babu Mathew P. Joseph also sentenced local masjid committee secretary Abdullatheef to six years’ imprisonment for allowing the place of worship to be used for abetting the crime. Some 20 assailants were arrested from the mosque from where the police also recovered blood-stained weapons.
The judge, however, agreed to treat the years that the culprits had spent in jail during the trial as part of the sentence and let Abdullatheef off as he had already spent six years in jail. He has also been asked to pay a fine of Rs.2000.
The remaining life convicts were found guilty of crimes including murder and attempt to murder. Some 16 people were maimed in the attack. The guilty verdict against the 63 came last month when 76 people charged in the case where acquitted.
All the acquitted were accused of conspiring to carry out the revenge killings that left deep scars on the social fabric of the fishing hamlet inhabited equally by both Hindus and Muslims. The prosecution failed to prove criminal conspiracy behind the attack.
Additional Public Prosecutor PD Ravi said the court did not accept the prosecution’s plea that the case be declared as “rarest of the rare” and award capital punishment “though it was a fit case.”
“In any case the verdict is a big achievement for us since in no such case anywhere in India such a large number of culprits have been awarded life imprisonment. This is a strong message against communal clashes,” he said.
The court observed that the killings were brutal but most of the culprits were semiliterate fisher-men from poor families.
