A district court here on Thursday found five of the accused in the sensational Vakkom Shabeer murder case guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder under Section 304 (part 2) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Sessions Judge K. Haripal found no merit in the prosecution's argument that the accused had committed premeditated murder under Section 302 of the IPC.
He sentenced the youth to eight years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of ₹20,000 each for manslaughter. They are Satheesh, Santosh, Vinayak, Kiran Kumar, and Raju. The judge acquitted the sixth accused of all charges.
The judge said the prosecution could not submit evidence of prior planning or intention to kill. The youth did not wield lethal weapons. They had ambushed Shabeer with sticks gathered from the wayside. The wood pieces were not hardy enough to inflict fatal injury.
The crime had evoked widespread public revulsion after a raw video of the street-killing surfaced in social media. A passerby had chanced to capture the offence on his mobile phone.
The judge said the video, an accepted piece of evidence, was not audible when played. The evidence could not advance the prosecution’s case that the accused persons had exhorted each other to kill Shabeer.
The youth had no intention to kill. However, the accused knew that the acts could cause death or injury. They shared the common purpose of harming Shabeer.
The victim and the accused were of the same age group. “On some petty issues, they beat him (Shabeer) like a mad dog in public view. It was the show of muscle power of gangsters,” Mr. Haripal observed.
He said the accused did not deserve sympathy but were entitled to moderate punishment. Paraniyam T. Devakumar prosecuted the case.
Counsels Sasthamangalam S. Ajith Kumar, H. Afsal Khan, Clarence Miranda and Vettor S. Prakash led the defence.