Kochi: Four of the fifteen convicts, who were sentenced to death for the murder of BJP leader Ranjeet Sreenivas, have filed appeals in the High Court.

The appellants, Naisam, Ajmal, Anoop, and Mohammed Aslam are challenging the order of the Mavelikara Additional District Sessions Court-I. Following the appeal, the High Court has issued notice to the state government and scheduled a hearing for March 13.

Ranjeet, who was the State secretary of the BJP’s OBC Morcha and a lawyer, was hacked to death at his house at Vellakinar in Alappuzha municipality on the morning of December 19, 2021. He was murdered in front of his mother, wife, and daughter.

According to investigators, the killing of Sreenivas was a retaliatory strike to avenge the murder of SDPI’s State secretary K S Shan at Kuppezham Junction at Mannancherry, Alappuzha, allegedly by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) activists the night before. The trigger for the murder of Shan was the killing of RSS worker Nandukrishna by SDPI men at Vayalar in Alappuzha on February 24, 2021.

The high-profile ‘communally tinged political killings’ had led to fears of a possible communal flare-up in Kerala. During the trial, the court recorded statements from 156 witnesses, while the prosecution also submitted approximately 1,000 documents and 100 material objects as evidence.

The Mavelikara Additional District Sessions Court has earlier deemed the Ranjeet murder case “rare” considering its severity, leading to death sentences for all fifteen accused.