Kochi: The CBI special court here on Wednesday
convicted V V Hamsa, the first accused in the sensational
murder case of Chekanoor Maualvi, a progressive Islamic
cleric, who was abducted on July 29, 1993 from his home at
Edapal in Malappuram district and later killed.
Special court judge S Vijaykumar found Hamsa guilty in the
case which took place 17 years ago.
The quantum of sentence will be pronounced tomorrow.
All the nine accused were present in the court.
Except, the fourth accused Muhammed Basheer, the court
acquitted the remaining 7 accused as the offences against them
was not prooved. Basheer was acquitted on the basis of doubt
regarding the question of identity.
Hamsa has been remanded to sub jail ernakulam.
Despite earnest efforts by the lcoal police and later
by CBI which investigated the case, the body of the maulavi
was never recovered.
`In the present day world of personal grudge, religious
rivalries and physical violence, criminals seek to achieve a
stage of being wiser than our criminal law. That cannot be
allowed at any rate in a developed criminal leagl system as
ours`, the court held delivering the jdugement.
The first accused, who along with another person
are prooved to have abducted chekanoor, has no explanation to
offer in regard to what he has done. `It cannot be believed
for a moment that he had let maulavi free. It is evident that
the abduction in itself was the result of a conspriacy of some
fundamental individuals of the muslims who could not tolerate
the so called progressive philosophies of chekanoor. They
preferred to put an end to this philosopher rather than
detabting and defeating his philosophy`.
All the prooved facts and broad circumstances of the case
are conducive with the theory of murder of chekanoor, the
court held.
After killing Maulavi, the dead body was disposed off in
some mysterious manner so as never to be recovered. It is
established that Hamsa along with the un-identified co-
abductor entered into criminal conspriacy for the maulavi`s
murder.
As part of the conspiracy, the first accused and his
companion tactfully abducted maulavi so that he may be
murdered. They then removed him to some secret place with the
help of conspirators, murdered him and disposed of his body
secretly and myusteriously thereby committing offences
punishable under sect 302 (murder), 120 B (Conspiracy) read
with 302, 364 (abduction), 201 (destruction of evidence) of
IPC, the court held.
The fact that other conspirators were the co-abductor could
not be correctly traced and brought to book for trial does not
in any way stand in the way of convicting the first accused,
the court observed.
Relying on previous judgements of the Supreme court and
high court, the court held that even if the body of Maulavi
was nto traced, the accused can be convicted on the basis of
strong evidence.
The CBI investigation was ordered by the Kerala high
court on a petition filed the Maulavi`s wife.
Meanwhile, the Maulavi`s family reacting to the judgement
said they are happy that at least one of the accused could be
brought to book.
Other accused in the case, who were acquitted are: Illiam
Hamsa, P K Saifudeen, Muhammed Kutty, Kunhi Marakkar, Abdul
Gafoor, Abdul Salam and Usman Musaliyar.
PTI
