Four Persons Arrested In Kerala For Threatening Sessions Judge Who Convicted PFI Workers For Murder Of Advocate Ranjith Sreenivasan
The Kerala Police have arrested four persons in total for issuing threats against Additional Sessions Judge V.G. Sreedevi. The Judge had convicted all accused in the case for the murder of Advocate Ranjith Sreenivasan and sentenced fourteen of them to death.
The fourth person was arrested on Wednesday and most persons have been arrested in separate cases registered for issuing threats against the Judge over social media.
The judge had been provided with additional security after she pronounced the judgment on sentence, following which threats were issued on social media.
The four persons arrested till now are Asarikkandy Muhammed Hadi, Naseer Mon, Nawaz Naina and Rafi.
The Court of Judge V.G. Sreedevi had found that the killers of Advocate Ranjith Sreenivasan believed that they were morally justified in doing what they did.
Advocate Ranjith Sreenivasan, an active member of the Alleppey Bar Association and the State Secretary of the OBC Morcha of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Kerala State was hacked to death inside his house on December 19, 2021, in front of his mother, wife, and daughter. The convicts are workers of the now-banned Popular Front of India (PFI).
“The accused believed that they are morally justified. The crime was committed with very good planning and the preparations might have started months ago. So, I am of the view that the defenceless victim who had never provoked the accused and the commission of offence was a pre-meditated one. The only mitigating circumstance, the age of the accused would not be balancing with the aggravating circumstances already pointed out. It is true that there is no records to show that the accused persons were convicted earlier”, the Court said in its judgment.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had dismissed the appeal of the accused seeking transfer of trial to Ernakulam in November last year.
The gruesome killing of Advocate Ranjith Sreenivas had invoked strong reactions among the legal fraternity across the country. The Bar Council of India had resolved to write to the Government of India through the Home Ministry demanding that the matter be investigated by a Central Agency like NIA or CBI.
The Jammu & Kashmir High Court Bar Association and the State Bar Council of Madhya Pradesh had also demanded strong action against those behind the killing of the Advocate. The Bar Council of Kerala had passed a resolution expressing anguish over the killing of the Advocate and demanded action against Ranjith's killers. Advocates of the Alleppey Bar Association had abstained from Court proceedings in protest against the killing, while demanding the constitution of a Special Investigative Team to probe into the killing.
