THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A special court in Kerala on Thursday awarded death sentence to Muhammed Ameerul Islam, a migrant labourer from Assam, guilty of raping and murdering a 30-year-old Dalit law student in Kerala in 2016.


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The 27-year-old woman was found murdered in her house near here on April 28, 2016. Her body was discovered by her mother Rajeshwari, who worked as a casual labour. 


On Tuesday, Ernakulam Principal Sessions Court judge N Anil Kumar held Ameerul guilty under various sections of the IPC including 449 (house-trespass in order to commit offence punishable with death), 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement), 302 (murder), 376 (rape) 376 (A) (causing death or causes the woman to be in persistent vegetative state while committing rape).



As many as 100 witnesses were examined during the trial, which commenced in April last.


The prosecution has described it as a rarest of rare case.


The woman, who hailed from a poor family, was brutally assaulted using sharp-edged weapons before being murdered at her house.


Islam, who had left Perumbavoor soon after committing the crime, was arrested from Kancheepuram in neighbouring Tamil Nadu, 50 days after the gruesome incident.


The police cracked the case after conducting a successful DNA test to nail the accused. The trial in the case was conducted in-camera.


The mother, who was present in the court to hear the trial, told the media before the verdict that she wanted her daughter's killer to be hanged to death.


"I'm very happy with the verdict. I'm thankful to all who helped solve the case," she was quoted as saying on Tuesday.


The incident was in focus during the state assembly polls campaign last year with political parties attacking the then Congress-led UDF regime for 'tardy' progress in the probe and 'failure' to nab culprits.