A Kerala court on Tuesday sentenced to death all 15 people associated with the now-banned Islamist outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) in connection with the murder of BJP OBC wing leader Ranjith Sreenivasan in December 2021.

The verdict was pronounced by Mavelikkara Additional District Judge V G Sreedevi.

Ranjith Sreenivasan, the BJP OBC Morcha state secretary, was brutally attacked and killed in his home on December 19, 2021, in front of his family – wife, mother and daughter – in Alappuzha.

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The 15 convicts are Naisam, Ajmal, Anoop, Mohammed Aslam, Abdul Kalam alias Salam, Saffaruddin, Manshad, Jaseeb Raja, Navas, Sameer, Nazir, Abdul Kalam, Zakir Hussain, Shaji and Shernas Ashraf, according to Live Law.

All the convicted individuals were members of the Popular Front of India (PFI), which was banned in 2022, and activists of its political wing the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI).

Earlier on January 20, the court found that out of the 15 people accused in the case, eight people (accused 1-accused 8) were directly involved in the case. The court found four others (accused 9-accused 12) guilty of murder because they, along with those directly involved in the crime, came to the spot armed with deadly weapons.

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Three accused who were conspirators have also been found guilty of criminal conspiracy and murder.

Ranjith’s wife Lisha expressed satisfaction over the verdict. “This cannot be seen as a murder. It is a rarest of rare case. My husband was brutally attacked in front of us,” she said, Indian Express reported.