Kochi: After Ameer ul-Islam was awarded death sentence in the sensational Jisha rape and murder case, his counsel and senior lawyer B A Aloor has said that the judge succumbed to public pressure.
"Strong-willed judges are vanishing from lower court in Kerala and rest of India. The judge, under excessive public glare, skewered his way into awarding death sentence to Ameer," he said.
The High Court had to concur with the lower court verdict, he said, adding that the judgment details would be sent to the HC.
He reiterated that his client was innocent and that he would go to any extent to ensure justice for Ameer.
Even while lambasting the lower court, Aloor said that higher courts were still 'in order' and that reversal in the Soumya murder case was proof of this. The Supreme Court had commuted the death sentence of convict Govindachamy in the Soumya rape and murder case after dropping the murder charge.
The Ernakulam principal district and sessions court on Tuesday awarded capital punishment to Muhammed Ameer ul-Islam, an Assam native, for raping and murdering the 30-year-old Dalit woman at her house in Perumbavoor on April 28, 2016.
On Tuesday, Ameer ul-Islam was found guilty under various sections of the IPC including 449 (house-trespass in order to commit offense punishable with death), 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement), 302 (murder), 376 (rape) 376 (A) (causing death or causes the woman to be in persistent vegetative state while committing rape).
The accused, however, was found 'not guilty' of offenses charged under section 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offense) and sections under the SC/ST (prevention of atrocities) amendment Act 2015.
Read more: Latest Kerala news | Framed or Nirbhaya-like convict? How defense & prosecution sparred over Ameer in Jisha case