CPI(M) worker Parakkandi Pavithran was murdered on November 6, 2007

Additional District Sessions Court at Thalassery on Wednesday awarded life imprisonment to seven Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) workers in the case of murder of Communist Party of India (Marxist) worker Parakkandi Pavithran near his house at Ponniam, near Thalassery, in 2007.

Additional Sessions Judge P.N. Vinod, who had earlier found the accused guilty, awarded them life imprisonment under various Section of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) including 302 (murder) and 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting with deadly weapon), 341 (wrongful restraint), read with 149 (offence by people of unlawful assembly).

The court has also imposed a fine of ₹1 lakh each on the convicts. They are C.K. Prashanth, Lyjesh alias Lyju, Parayakkandi Vineesh, Prashanth alias Muthu, K.C. Anilkumar, Kizhakkayil Vijilesh and K. Mahesh. Another accused in the case Valiyaparambath Jyothish had passed away.

According to prosecution, slain Pavithran had been attacked by a gang of eight BJP-RSS workers around 5.45 a.m. on November 6, 2007, when he had come out of his residence at Ponniam to buy milk. On being attacked near the Anganwadi, Pavithran had entered the compound of a nearby house, but the assailants chased him and stabbed him causing serious injuries in his head and limbs. He had succumbed to his injuries on November10 in a hospital in Kozhikode.