Kasaragod: A Kasaragod sessions court on Thursday sentenced four people to rigorous life imprisonment for the murder of C A Mohammed (56), president of Bilal Mosque at Adkathbail in Kasaragod town.

Special Public Prosecutor CK Sreedharan identified the convicts as BJP workers Santhosh Naik (37) and Ajithkumar K (36) of Kudlu village and K Sivaprasad (41) and G Kishorkumar (40) of Adkathbail village.

On August 24, the Kasaragod Additional Sessions Court - II judge, Priya K found the four accused guilty under section 341 of the IPC for wrong restrain; section 302 for murder; and section 34 of the IPC (common intent). On Thursday, she sentenced them to three months of rigorous imprisonment under Section 341 of IPC; and life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1 lakh each under Section 302 of IPC. If the fine is not paid, they will have to serve another four months in prison, said Adv K P Pradeep Kumar, who assisted special public prosecutor Adv Sreedharan in the case.

The sentencing was delayed by five days because the accused no. 3 Ajithkumar told the court, after he was found guilty, that he was a minor at the time of the crime. The court checked the document he submitted and found that he was 18 years and eight months old at the time of the murder.

The accused were initially represented by former BJP state president Adv PS Sreedharan Pillai. After he became the Governor of Goa, his junior Adv Joseph and Adv P Murali from Kasaragod took over the case.

Adv Sreedharan said around noon on April 18, a Friday, Bilal Mosque president C A Mohammed was going for the prayers through Gudde Temple Road when the four accused waylaid him. "Two of them held his arms and the other two stabbed him," said Adv Sreedharan. He died on the spot. Mohammed's son Shihab, who was walking a few steps behind him, saw his father being killed, said the special public prosecutor. "Shihab and another pedestrian, Mahin, who saw the crime, were the prosecution's eyewitnesses. Their statements helped clinch the conviction," said Adv Sreedharan.

After the sentencing, Shihab told reporters that no child should lose their parents to communal violence.
Mohammed was the fourth person to be killed in five days in the tit-for-tat communal frenzy of April 2008, said Adv Sreedharan. "But this is the first conviction," he said.

The communal killings started on April 14, Vishu Day, when a group stabbed to death B Sandeep. The BJP called for a hartal the following day on April 15, and some Muslim youths were attacked at Karanthakad, a pocket borough of the BJP-RSS in Kasaragod town.

On April 16, 2008, Mohammed Sinan, a teenager on a motorcycle, was stabbed to death at Anebagilu, another BJP pocket borough.
On April 17, some Muslim extremists stabbed to death P Suhas, an advocate and trade union leader of the RSS, in Kasaragod. On April 18, Mohammed was killed.
Adv Suhas's case is pending before the Sessions Court in Thalassery. All the accused in Sandeep and Sinan's murder cases were acquitted.