KOZHIKODE: The murder of Kunnasseri Naseer Husain, 40, by moral policing goons at Mankada in Malappuram early on Tuesday is the second similar incident in the state after a youth was killed at Mukkam in the district on November 9, 2011.
The youth, Shaheed Bhava, 26, used to visit a woman in the village and the local people had a skirmish with him over his visit at odd hours. They tied him to an electric post at Kodiyathur, Mukkam, and attacked him around midnight. He died in a private hospital the next day, according to police.
The court, on October 7, 2014, sentenced nine of the 15 accused in the case to lifetime imprisonment under section 302 of IPC as the murder was not the rarest of rare, considering the age of the accused and the plight of their dependants. The court observed that the public taking law into their hands in the name of policing moral deviations was a dangerous trend.
It also imposed a fine ranging from Rs 25,000 to Rs 50,000 on each of the guilty. The police had slapped sections of conspiracy, illegal gathering and murder. The court examined 40 of the 83 witnesses, including the woman and her mother. An amount of Rs 2 lakh from the fine was given to Shaheed Bhava’s father.
