Kerala professor’s hand-chopping case: NIA special court convicts six PIF cadres; life sentence pronounced to three
₹50,000 each. As per the NIA order, the other three convicts MK Nausha, PP Moideenkunu and P.M. Ayoob, have been sentenced to three years imprisonment. On 4 July, 2010, the right hand of T J Joseph, professor of Newman College in Thodupuzha in Idukki district, was chopped off by alleged activists of the now banned radical Islamic outfit Popular Front of India (PFI).
The court in its order on the sentence said, “What has been committed is a terrorist act. The nation and its citizenry also suffered a lot. Terrorism has been recognised as one of the six most severe threats to civilisation, security and humanity.
The act of the accused is a challenge to the secular fabric of our nation. " "It attempts to establish a parallel religious judicial system which is absolutely illegal, illegitimate and unconstitutional. It has no place in independent India under our constitutional scheme.
A country governed by the rule of law cannot fathom it," it said. The six accused were convicted by the court on Wednesday in the second phase of the trial in the case. In the first phase of the trial in the case, 10 persons were convicted for offences under the UAPA as well as the Explosive Substances Act and the IPC, and three others were found guilty of harbouring the offenders. While convicting the six in the second phase of the trial, the court had on Wednesday noted that second accused Sajil took part in the attack while third accused Nasar, who was the main conspirator in the case, and fifth accused Najeeb had planned the "terrorist act" but did not take part in it. The attack took place while the professor was returning home with his family after attending Sunday mass at a church in Muvattupuzha in Ernakulam district.
Read more on livemint.com
