By TwoCircles.net Staff Correspondent,
Kochi: The Marad Special Court today sentenced all the 10 convicts, found to have set fire to the house of Arayachantakath Manasa, for a rigorous imprisonment of five years and fine of Rs 18,000. The Judge KP Prasannakumari had convicted all the 10 accused yesterday in the incident that took place in between the Marad Clashes of 2002.
The convicts are Sainudheen, Sali, Latheef, Nasi alias Abdul Nasar, Rafi, Basheer, Askar, Aanu alias Koyamon, Gafoor and Nisar. All are natives of Marad.
The incident leading to the case took place at around 8 pm on 3rd January, 2002. The convicts are reported to have barged into the house of Manasa and set fire to the house. They are also reported to have damaged home equipments worth Rs 50, 000. The court questioned 14 witnesses and checked 25 documents in the case. The court found that the convicts were guilty of the crimes of gathering illegally, theft, setting fire to house and fomenting communal hatred.
Adv PD Ravi, Special Prosecutor, appeared for the prosecution. Adv Edathodi Radhakrishnan, Adv PK Varghese and Adv MT Sameer appeared for the accused.
There are 71 cases related to the Marad clashes of 2002. This is the fifth among the cases to be tried by the court. Among the four previous cases, the convicts were punished in three and set free in one as the court acquitted the accused.