Lifer for ex-IGP in Naxal leader?s fake encounter case

Kochi : A day after Kerela Inspector General of Police (IGP) K Lakshamana was convicted in the 1970 fake encounter case of Naxal leader A Varghese, a special CBI court on Thursday handed down life imprisonment to the retired cop.

Special judge S Vijay Kumar sentenced Lakshamana to life imprisonment for the ?brutal killing? of Varghese and also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000, to be given to the family of the slain Naxal leader.

?No more evidence is needed, it is proved beyond any shadow of reasonable doubt that Varghese who was caught hold of live was brutally killed by the first accused who was a stooge at the hands of Lakshamana who on his order brought about his plan,? the verdict said.

Lakshmana had pleaded before the court for maximum leniency as he was in his seventies and had requested that he be sent to Thiruvananthapuram central jail.

The public prosecutor had, however, asked for maximum punishment of death penalty as this was a ?rarest of rare case? as a common man was branded as Naxalite, taken to Thirunelly forests and shot dead in cold blood with his hands tied.

The court had, however, acquitted former Director General of Police (DGP) P Vijayan, the third accused.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had launched a probe in 1999 into the killing of Varghese, who was allegedly shot down in a police encounter in 1970 inside the Thirunelly forest in Wayanad.

A former police constable, P Ramchandran Nair, who was present at the encounter spot, had confessed in 1998 that Varghese was shot dead from point-blank range.

Nair had stated that he had himself killed Varghese on the instructions of Vijayan, then-superintendent of police, and Lakshmana, then-deputy superintendent of police.

Nair, who was the first accused in the case, died four years ago.

The trial had started in April this year and 31 witnesses, including Varghese brother and neighbours who had seen the Maoist leader being taken away handcuffed, had testified.