Jisha murder case: Lone convict Ameerul Islam sentenced to death by Ernakulam court

The Ernakulam chief judicial magistrate court has sentenced Muhammed Ameerul Islam to death, after finding the 23-year-old guilty of rape and murder of 30-year-old Dalit law student Jisha in Kerala last year. Islam was found guilty under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 302 (murder), 376 (rape) and 376 (A) (causing death or causes the woman to be in persistent vegetative state while committing rape). [caption id=“attachment_4258545” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Ameerul Islam. PTI[/caption] Islam, a migrant labourer from Assam and the lone accused in the case, was charged with brutally raping and murdering the woman, a law student, at Perumbavoor in Kerala on 28 April, 2016. He was booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Rules. As many as 100 witnesses were examined during the trial which commenced in April last year. The prosecution had described it as “rarest of rare” case. The victim’s mother had expressed hope that justice will be delivered in the case. She demanded capital punishment for the accused. The woman, who hailed from a poor family, was brutally assaulted using sharp-edged weapons before being murdered at her house. Islam, who had left Perumbavoor soon after committing the crime, was arrested from Kancheepuram in neighbouring Tamil Nadu, 50 days after the incident. The incident was in focus during the state Assembly polls campaign last year, with political parties attacking the then Congress-led UDF regime for “tardy” progress in the probe and failure to nab culprits. The LDF government, after assuming power on 25 May last year, changed the investigation team and entrusted the probe to ADGP B Sandhya in its first Cabinet meeting. More than 100 police personnel had questioned over 1,500 people. Fingerprints of over 5,000 people were examined by the SIT personnel who went through over 20 lakh telephonic conversations before reaching Islam. Police have said blood-stained footwear found from a canal near the victim’s house was one of the key evidence in identifying the culprit. With inputs from PTI