Three people have been arrested in connection with the alleged threats made on various social media platforms against a sessions court judge in Kerala after she sentenced 15 men associated with the now-banned Popular Front of India (PFI) to death in the 2021 murder case of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ranjith Sreenivasan, police said.
One of the accused was arrested on Wednesday, while the other two were held on Thursday, a senior police officer said.
Mavelikkara Additional Sessions Judge VG Sreedevi had on January 30 sentenced to death 15 people associated with radical Islamist outfit PFI and its political wing Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) in connection with the murder of Sreenivasan, the secretary of the BJP’s OBC wing, in Alappuzha district.
Soon after the verdict, posts on social media platforms verbally insulting the judge cropped up and were circulated by various accounts. Taking note of the online threats, the Kerala Police strengthened the security cover of the judge, an officer said.
“They (all three accused) have been charged under sections 153(a) (promoting enmity between different groups based on religion, race, caste etc) of the IPC (Indian Penal Code) and Section 120(o) (causing nuisance and violation of public order) of the Kerala Police Act, 2011,” said CI Arun of the Alappuzha South police station, where a first information report has been registered.
{{/usCountry}}“They (all three accused) have been charged under sections 153(a) (promoting enmity between different groups based on religion, race, caste etc) of the IPC (Indian Penal Code) and Section 120(o) (causing nuisance and violation of public order) of the Kerala Police Act, 2011,” said CI Arun of the Alappuzha South police station, where a first information report has been registered.
{{/usCountry}}The officer, however, refused to divulge the identity of the accused citing the ongoing investigation.
In her verdict on Tuesday, the judge had accepted the prosecution’s argument that the case belonged to the rarest-of-the-rare category and that the convicts deserved the maximum penalty. This was the first time in Kerala that so many people were awarded the death sentence in a single case.
Sreenivasan (40) was hacked to death by a 12-member gang at his residence in Vellakinar in Alappuzha on December 19, 2021. The crime was witnessed by the BJP leader’s mother, wife and daughter. Sreenivasan’s killing was seen as retaliation for the murder of SDPI state secretary KS Shan on the previous day by alleged RSS members in the Alappuzha district. The trial in that case is yet to begin.