On April 18, 2008, Mohammed Kunhi was on his way to the mosque in Kasaragod when the four ambushed him. Two of them restrained his arms while others fatally stabbed him
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI — Four persons associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) were awarded life sentences for the April 2008 murder of a 56-year-old president of a mosque committee.
A sessions court in Kasaragod in the southern state of Kerala pronounced the verdict on Thursday sentencing Santhosh Naik (37) of Kudlu village, K Sivaprasad (41) of Adkathbail village, Ajithkumar K (36) of Kudlu village, and KG Kishorkumar (40) for the murder of CM Mohammed Kunhi, the president of Bilal Mosque in Adkathbail, Kasaragod town.
Kunhi, murdered in front of his son, was the fourth person killed in the 2008 violence, where at least four people lost their lives in just five days.
Advocate CK Sreedharan, ace criminal lawyer and special public prosecutor in the case, was quoted by OnManorama as saying that Thursday’s conviction was the first in a communal murder case in Kasaragod in more than a decade and a half.
In initial hearings, the RSS men were represented by senior BJP leader PS Sreedharan Pillai. After Pillai was appointed as governor of Goa, Joseph from Kozhikode and P Murali from Kasaragod defended the four accused.
On Friday, April 18, 2008, Kunhi was on his way to prayers via Gudde Temple Road when the four convicted men ambushed him. Two of them restrained his arms while others fatally stabbed him. He died on the spot. Kunhi’s son, Shihab, who was walking a few steps behind, witnessed the murder. Shihab and another pedestrian who saw the crime served as the prosecution’s eyewitnesses.
