Kochi: The lone accused in the Jisha rape and murder case, a migrant labourer from Assam, was on Tuesday convicted by the Ernakulam Principal Sessions Court.
Ameerul Islam was convicted on the charges of rape and murder in the case which shook Kerala and was a major issue in the 2016 Assembly elections in the state.
Islam was found guilty under Section 342 of IPC (trespass), 342 (wrongful confinement) , 376 (rape), 376 (a) causing death or resulting in persistent vegetative state of victim), and 302 (murder).
The charges against Islam according to the Special Investigation Team were – Section 376 of IPC (punishment for rape), 376A (punishment for causing death or resulting in persistent vegetative state of victim), 442 (house trespass), 449 (house-trespass in order to commit offence punishable with death), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offense, or giving false information to screen offender), 302 (punishment for murder) and charges on Dalit Atrocities Prevention Act.
The lawyer of the accused, Advocate BA Arun, told News18 that the hearing on quantum will not take place on Wednesday. “There would only be arguments tomorrow where we will plead that Islam does not deserve a death penalty. We will fight for life sentence, since he has been convicted now,” said Arun.
The prosecution's case was built on circumstantial and material evidence since they could not find direct ones to establish the crime.
Jisha, a 30-year-old Dalit woman, was found murdered at her home in Perumbavoor, Ernakulam, on April 28 last year.
Islam used to work near the victim’s home. The police had made a case that witnesses had seen Islam near Jisha’s residence on the day of the murder.
The case has also been built on DNA evidence sample produced by the police that was recovered from the nail chip found from the cloth of the victim. Other DNA evidence were also recovered from the footwear of the accused.
The trial which spanned over two and a half months since the hearing began on April 4, 2017, saw the prosecution examine over 100 witnesses, including 15 migrant labourers, and presented 290 documents and 36 material pieces of evidence.
The case was a major issue during the 2016 Assembly elections in Kerala. The opposition had targeted the UDF government government for having “failed to ensure security for women and that the state lacked in providing basic law and order decorum.”
The case had also highlighted the need for a stricter monitoring mechanism for migrant labourers. The investigation gained a new direction after the LDF came to power and initiated a fresh probe under ADGP Sandhya.
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