Trivandrum: All eight awarded life sentence for Sunil Babu murder

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A local court here on Wednesday sentenced all the eight accused of Sunil Babu murder case to life imprisonment. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 2 lakh on each of them and ordered to hand over Rs 5 lakh which was collected as penalty to the victim’s family.  The life sentence has been awarded under Section 302 (Punishment for Murder),  Section 120 (b) (Punishment for Criminal Conspiracy) , ten year imprisonment for Section 326 (Voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means) and one year for  Section 341 (Punishment for wrongful restraint) registered against them in the FIR. Last Friday, the court had found all the accused in the case guilty. The verdict was pronounced by additional district and sessions judge P N Seetha. 

Sunil Babu, 27, the brother of notorious goon Dini Babu was murdered by the eight-member team at Kannammoola in December 2015.   He was hacked to death by Sijith alias Rajan, 32, Arun alias Gabri Arun, 26, Vineeth alias Kicha Vineeth, 26, Aneesh alias Mali Aneesh, 26, Binuraj alias Kaari Binu, 39, Saju alias Kallan Saju, 38, Saji alias Pori Saji, 38, and Suresh alias Kopra Suresh, 38. All are residents of Puthenpalam and Kannammoola. 

The murder was a fallout of a long-standing rivalry between Sunil Babu and Kaari Binu and Kallan Saju. The investigation team led by former Medical College circle inspector Sheen Tharayil had arrested all the accused and recovered the weapons. During the trial, 11 out of 50 witnesses had turned hostile. All the accused were aides of notorious goon Puthenpalam Rajesh. Seven months after the incident, Sunil’s brother Dini Babu retaliated by murdering Vishnu, 19, of Puthanpalam, who was a close aide of Rajesh. 
Following the court order, the accused were later shifted to Poojappura central prison.