Representative Photo

ALAPPUZHA: Additional district court III judge K Anilkumar found six men, including a former CPM secretary guilty in the murder of Congress ward president KS Divakaran. The court will pronounce the verdict on April 21.

As per the case registered by Cherthala police, Divakaran 56, a native of Cherthala, died after a group of men attacked his house on November 29, 2009.

Court found V Sujith (38), S Sathishkumar (38), P Praveen (32), M Benny (45), N Sethukumar (45) and R Byju (45) guilty in the case. The issue is related to the sale of coir mats that led to the attack and resulted in the death of Divakaran.

According to the police, the team led by Byju, former CPM office-bearer, reached the home of Divakaran as part of the sale of coir mats on November 29. They demanded Divakaran to buy a mat. However, he refused to buy the mat saying that the rate of mat was high and he said that he knew the price because he was a former employee of a coir factory in Cherthala.

It provoked them an altercation ensued between the two parties. The accused forcefully left a mat at Divakaran's house

Later, Divakaran's son Dileep went to grama sabha and briefed its members about the altercation. It also resulted in a clash between the two parties.

Later in the day, the accused attacked their house. The gang attacked Divakaran, his son Dileep and wife Reshmi. Divakaran sustained serious injuries in the attack and was rushed to the Cherthala taluk hospital. Later, he was shifted to Kottayam Medical College where he succumbed to his injuries on December 9, the report said.

During the initial stages of investigation, Byju was not included in the list of the accused. Later, the Congress staged an agitation and the police included Byju name in the case following which the CPM removed him from the post of local secretary. Byju and Sethukumar were culprit in various cases registered by the police.

