Five sentenced to life term for Radhakrishna Pillai murder

Kollam: A court in Kollam has sentenced five persons to life imprisonment in the Radhakrishna Pillai murder case, after ten years of legal battle.

The convicts are Saju, 40, Harilal, 32, Sivaraman, 47, Santhosh, 29, and Jayaprakash, 37, all from Kottukkal.

Additional Sessions Judge F. Asheeda also slapped a penalty of Rs 1 lakh each to be paid to the dependents of the victim, his widow and two children.

Mr Pillai, 45, of Karthika, Kottukkal, was an NRI. The incident took place when he was on vacation. He used to hire the autorickshaw service of Saju whenever he is back home.

This time he didn’t hire his vehicle, which according to prosecution, led to the rivalry and murder. On the day of the incident on January 14, 2005, Saju had a fight with Chandrashekharan Pillai, brother of Radhakrishna Pillai, at his shop in Kottukkal.

He later came back with the co-convicts to attack them. Radhakrishna Pillai, who was stabbed by Saju, succumbed to his injuries on the way to Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital.

During the trial, eight witnesses including the brother-in-law of the deceased, turned hostile. Five of the ten defendants were acquitted earlier.