Marad: 16 convicted for Hindu boy’s murder

The Special Additional District Sessions Court in Kozhikode on Thursday convicted 16 accused persons in the case related to the murder of Shimjith, 17-year-old Hindu boy, during the communal riots at the fishing village of Marad near Beypore in Kozhikode on January 2, 2002. The court acquitted four of the total 20 accused in the case. The punishment for those found guilty would be announced on Saturday.

The case was that a group of assailants of about 35 persons had attacked the house of Pushparajan of Thekkethodi, an activist of Hindu fishermen’s Araya Samajam outfit, at Marad and hacked his cousin Shimjith who was in the house at that time. The assailants also torched the house. Five persons were killed in the incident, known as first Marad riots, which had sparked off the massacre of May 3, 2003 in the village (second Marad riots), in which eight Hindus were hacked and stabbed to death.

The Prosecution could prove murder charge against seven of the accused only. The charge against the accused were murder, attempt to murder, violation of arms laws and incitement of religious hatred. The Beypore police had charged the accused under Section 143, 147, 148, 149, 153-A, 302, 307, 336 and 396 of the Indian Penal Code. There were 29 witnesses in the case. One of them was Pushparajan, who was hacked to death in the massacre of May, 2003. .

All the accused in the case were Muslims and five of them were already in prison after being convicted in the second Marad riots. Those acquitted were eighth accused Musthafa and tenth accused Saleem, both of Erajuvintakath, Eramoontakath Faisal and Puthenpeedikel Ansu, respectively 16th and 19th accused. The Prosecution said it was satisfied with the verdict of Special Judge KP Prasannakumari.

Those convicted in the case were Seemamudakathu Latheef (43); Pallithodi Abdul Rizan (29), Nalukudiparambu Manaf (29), brothers Seemaoontakath Thajudeen (34), Noufal (30), Gafoor (38) and Manaf (32), brothers Erjuvindakathu Shafi (38), and Zakir (32), Seemamudakathu Siyavudheen (32), Thakkalathu Mustafa (39); Parichendakathu Saidalavi alias Koyamon (29), Erjuvindakathu Shihab (28), Seemamudakathu Sarfudeen (31), Arayanveethil Anu alias Koyamon (33) and Seemamudakathu Anafi (38).

The Shimjith murder case was the 18th of the 67 cases registered in connection with the communal riots in Marad on January 3 and 4. This was also the first of the murder cases in which the trial had been completed. The court had completed the trial proceedings on January 17 and deferred the case to Thursday for pronouncing the verdict.

The others who lost lives in the first Marad riots were Pallithodi Yunus, Kunjumon Narayanan, Kunhikoya and Aboobacker. Eighty houses, belonging to people from both communities, came under arson and looting. Twenty-one houses were gutted and 42 partially damaged in the fire. Two country boats and seven motor-driven fibre boats were set ablaze. The financial losses in the riots were estimated at Rs1.58 crore.

The special court had already delivered the verdict in ten of the 67 cases registered in connection with the first Marad riots. The court had earlier awarded rigorous life imprisonment to 62 accused and fined them Rs 25,000 each in the case relating to the massacre of May, 2003.