The Supreme Court, on Tuesday, July 16, stayed the death penalty awarded to the convict in the murder and rape of Dalit law student in Perumbavoor in 2016. The Ernakulam Principal Sessions Court in 2017 found a migrant labourer from Assam, 24-year-old Ameerul Islam, guilty of all charges except for destruction of evidence, and violations under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act. This verdict was upheld by the Kerala HC in May 2024.
A three-judge bench of the apex court has sought a report from the prison authorities with regard to the conduct and behaviour of the convict in jail within a period of eight weeks. The Kerala government has been directed to submit reports of all probation officers concerned within eight weeks. The court has also given eight weeks time to Thrissur Government Medical College to constitute a team, conduct a psychological evaluation of the convict and submit a report. A new mitigation investigation report, which would be carried out as a series of interviews by Nuriya Ansari of Project 39 A, should be submitted within 12 weeks, when the case would be heard again. The bench headed by Justice B R Gavai and included Justices Sanjay Karol and K V Viswanathan said “The execution of the death sentence shall remain stayed, pending the hearing and final disposal of the present appeal.”
The Ernakulam Principal Sessions Court in 2017 pronunced death penalty to Ameerul Islam and said that the charges under Sections 449 (trespass), 342 (wrongful confinement), 376 (rape), 376 (a) (causing death/resulting in persistent vegetative state) and 302 (murder) had been proved. Two days later, the court sentenced him to capital punishment. On May 20 this year, Kerala High Court upheld the conviction, challenging which Ameerul filed the petition at the Supreme Court. The HC had ordered a mitigation investigation into the case on May 11 to better ascertain the background and circumstances of the crime, so that nothing remained unaddressed before the court decided to commute or uphold the death penalty.
The 30-year-old law student, hailing from Perumbavoor in Ernakulam district, was raped and murdered at her house in Kuruppampadi on April 28, 2016. Following a long investigation, the investigative team finally submitted a 1,500-page chargesheet on September 17, 2016. The trial in the case began on April 4, 2017. Through the hearings that spanned 85 days, the prosecution presented as many as 195 witnesses, 290 documents and 36 pieces of material evidence against Ameerul, including DNA reports.
One of the men who was initially named as the accused in the crime, 37-year-old Sabu, died by suicide in July, 2017. Another man, who resembled one of the sketches put out by the police, nearly lost his job after his picture began to circulate on social media as the prime suspect in the case. Ameerul had claimed innocence when the verdict was pronounced. He was heard saying, "I haven't done anything, I don't know anything about this. I was just picked up by the police. I don't know anything, there must be a proper investigation."