Marad fishermen killing: 24 more get life term

The High Court on Thursday awarded rigorous life imprisonment to 24 persons and imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 each on them in a case relating to the massacre of eight fishermen of Marad on May 2, 2003.

With this verdict, the High Court set aside their acquittal by the Kozhikode Special Additional District Sessions Court (Marad cases). A Division Bench comprising Justice M Sasidharan Nambiar and Justice P Bhavadasn passed the order while partially allowing

an appeal filed by the state government seeking to convict 76 accused who were acquitted and a directive to enhance life imprisonment of 14 accused to death penalty.  The court ordered the 24 accused to surrender before the trial court on August 24.

The special court had earlier awarded rigorous life imprisonment to 62 persons and five-year imprisonment to an accused, Latheef Assainar, manager of Juma Masjid at Marad. The High Court dismissed the appeal filed by the 62 convicts and confirmed their sentence.

While awarding the punishment to the 24 accused, the court observed that evidence was convincing and legally acceptable.

The 24 accused were Haris, Shihab, Akbar, Navas, Shamsu, Ali Akbar alias Ali, Shameer, Noushad, Moideen Koya, Riyaz, Ameer, Shihab, Thajudheen, Subair alias Koyamon, Ashraf, Assainar, Aboobacker, Knhikoya, Abbas, Ashraf, K Majeed, Moideen Koya, Nazeer and Ashraf.