15 from PFI get death for killing Kerala BJP leader
A Kerala court has sentenced 15 members of the extremist outfit PFI to death for the murder of a BJP leader in December 2021.
A Kerala court on Tuesday sentenced to death 15 persons convicted in the murder of Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ranjith Sreenivasan at his residence in Alappuzha in December 2021.

The 15, who belong to the now-banned extremist outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) and its political wing Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), were given the maximum penalty by judge Sreedevi VG of the Mavelikkara Additional District Sessions Court-1.
“The court accepted all the evidence submitted by the prosecution and our argument that this case belongs to the rarest of the rare category. It is in this context that the court has sentenced all the 15 convicts to death,” said special public prosecutor Prathap G Padickal.
Apart from the death sentence, the convicts have also been given life sentences and awarded fines for various offences.
READ | Court refuses bail to lawyer with alleged PFI links
The Mavelikkara court on January 20 found the 15 guilty of various offences including murder, criminal conspiracy, unlawful assembly, and trespassing, wrongful restraint, and criminal intimidation. A total of 156 witnesses testified during the trial and the prosecution produced over 1,000 documents and 100 material objects in court.

Sreenivasan, 40 at the time of his death, was the state secretary of the BJP’s OBC Morcha, and was hacked to death at his home in Vellakinar in Alappuzha town by a 12-member gang with sharp weapons on the morning of December 19, 2021. Police said that the BJP leader’s mother, wife, and younger daughter were witnesses to the brutal crime. Sreenivasan’s killing was seen as retaliation for the murder of SDPI state secretary KS Shan the previous day, allegedly by members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological parent of the BJP. The trial in that case is still going on.
Eight of the convicts barged into the BJP leader’s residence and attacked him, four stood outside and provided help, and three were involved in the larger conspiracy, the court had found.
The PFI was not banned at the time of the murder. On September 28, 2022, the Union home ministry banned PFI for a period of five years under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The Centre said that the outfit and its associates were found to be involved in terrorist activities, targeted gruesome killings and disturbing public order “prejudicial to the integrity, sovereignty and security” of the country.
The police said that the court verdict was a big achievement for the force and those who worked on the case.
“Former district police chief Jayadev and former Alappuzha DySP Jayaraj had played key roles in the investigation and subsequent follow-up. A team of officials worked on this case and this achievement belongs to them,” said Chaitra Teresa John, district police chief, Alappuzha.
The state BJP also welcomed the ruling. “This verdict is satisfying for all those who desire for peace. We welcome this verdict. We believe that Ranjith Sreenivasan’s family members and his colleagues have finally received justice,” said BJP state chief K Surendran.
“His loss is huge for us, but the court verdict granting death sentence to all of them is a relief. It falls under the rarest of the rare category because it was not an ordinary murder. We saw him being hacked to death in front of us. He was left in such a shape that we couldn’t even perform the rituals properly,” said Sreenivasan’s widow, Lisha.
