In what could be counted as a major development, an additional Sessions court in Kottayam has given its nod to consider the murder of Kevin P. Joseph, the Dalit Christian as an incident of ‘honour killing’ forming this to be the first such case that has been reported by far in Kerala.
Pronouncing its verdict on a petition moved by Special Prosecutor CS Ajayan, Additional Sessions Judge K.G. Sanal Kumar on Wednesday directed to fast track the trial. It was last week when the court had completed its hearing on the petition.
The hearing of the case will be done on a daily basis and the proceedings should get completed within a period of six months after taking note.
During the hearing, the prosecution made the argument that Kevin was murdered only because he was a Dalit Christian. On the other hand, the defendant’s side contested that this case should not be considered as the case of ‘honour killing’ since both the parties were Christians.
The case is related to the murder of a 24-year-old Kevin who had wedded Neenu Chacko on 24th May, who belonged to a different community, at a civil marriage ceremony.
It was after 3 days on 27th May that he was dragged out of his house from Mannanam near Kottayam and was taken in a car along with one of his relatives, who was freed by the abductors later. It was the next day that Kevin’s body was found lying in a canal near Thenmala in Kollam. Later, the investigations revealed that he was kidnapped by his wife’s relatives. As per the charge sheet, he was forced to jump in a river that led to his death.
Enlisting the case to be an instance of homicidal drowning, charges of murder were slapped against all the 14 accused in the case that included Neenu’s father Chacko John and brother Shyanu Chacko.
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