Kochi: CPM leader K V Kunhiraman, who was sentenced to five years of imprisonment in the Periya double murder case on Friday, is the first former legislator from Kerala to get punishment in a murder case. The former Udma MLA, who is also a member of the CPM’s Kasaragod district secretariat, along with three others have been slapped with the jail term and a fine of Rs 10,000 under Section 225 of IPC (obstructing or resisting the lawful apprehension of another person). The former MLA was found guilty of rescuing the murder accused from police custody.

The only other instance in which a legislator from Kerala was convicted in a murder case dates back to 1978. M V Rajagopalan, the then Thalassery MLA, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1980 after he was convicted in the murder of RSS worker Kunnothuparambath Raveendran. He was among the 12 CPM workers who got life term in the case. K V Raghavan, the then Mahe MLA in the Pondicherry assembly, was also sentenced to life in the case.

They were sentenced by Thalassery Sessions Judge A Antony. Rajagopalan and Raghavan, arraigned as first and second accused in the case, were charged with plotting the murder of Raveendran, a Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) activist, to avenge the killing of Marxist leader Panur Rajan Master. Raveendran was hacked to death at Palloor Road on November 2, 1978. 

Rajagopalan, who was a school teacher, was elected to the assembly from Thalassery constituency first in the 1979 bypoll, and he retained the seat in 1980. Raghavan represented the Mahe constituency from 1974 to 1980, winning three elections in a row. 

Former CPM MLAs P Jayarajan and T V Rajesh have been booked by the CBI and are facing trial in the murder of Youth League activist Abdul Shukoor in Ariyil in a case dating back to 2012.