Life term for Jihadi Rapist

Life-term for accused in Shahana murder case

PNS | Kozhikode

A court in Kozhikode on Wednesday sentenced Mayankutty (46), Vazhavalappil of Cherandathur, Vadakara in the district to life imprisonment for murdering an eight-year-old girl, Shahana alias Thesni of Mullamannil from the same village, during the attempt to rape her. The Fast Track Court –II also slapped a fine of Rs 600,000 on Mayankutty.

The Prosecution case was that Mayankutty had murdered Shahana, a Class IV student of MLP School, Cherandthaur by asphyxiation amidst the attempt to rape her. Shahana had gone to the courtyard of Mayankutty’s house, adjacent to the school, during the morning break when he lured her into the house offering guava fruit on June 23, 2008.

Shahana’s body was found wrapped in a sack in the kitchen of Mayankutty’s house. Mayankutty was caught by the local people immediately after the body was found and was handed over to the police amidst loud protests that verged on violence. .

The court, which refused to grant the argument of the counsel of the accused that this could not be termed as a rarest of the rare case, ordered that the fine to be taken from Mayankutty should be handed over to Sajitha, Shahana’s mother. Hearing out the verdict, Sajitha said she had expected death sentence in the case but was relieved that he had been sentenced to life imprisonment.

The Prosecution had relied completely on circumstantial evidences in the absence of any eye-witnesses to prove the case. There were a total of 40 witnesses in the case of whom 20 were examined in the court. There were no witnesses from the side of the accused. The trial in the case had been completed ion 15 days.

Immediately after his arrest, Mayankutty had admitted to his crime. He said he stifled her to death while he was trying to rape her. He had tried to hide the body after the heinous act. He had lured Shahana, when she came to drink water during the recess from the school, to the house offering guava.

Inside the house, he gave her guava and tried to abuse her sexually while she was eating it. The girl tried to make noise threatening to complain to the teachers. At this, Mayankutty caught her and using a shawl, stifled her to death. He had told the police that the entire act had not taken more than 20 minutes.

After killing the girl, Mayankutty packed the body in a plastic bag and carried it over to the shed on the roof where firewood had been kept. As the staircase to the roof was from outside the house, he had carried the body up carefully, without getting noticed by the people who were searching everywhere for the missing girl.

While he was searching for a way to conceal the body, people had come to the house asking him to join in the search for the girl, but he refused saying about stomach problems. After getting the body up to the firewood shed, he concealed it with the coconut husks lying around.

According to the police, the culprit had planned to throw the body in the river when he got the chance. However, the people who came back to his house noticed Shahana’s footwear there and this led the search to Mayankutty. The culprit was alone in the house when he committed the crime as his wife and kids had gone to her house.

According to the local residents, Mayankutty was in the habit of smoking cannabis, but school authorities said they had never known of this. If any such thing had come to their notice they would not have allowed children to go to his house for drinking water.

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