Nearly two years after Abhimanyu M, a student of Kochi’s Maharajas College was brutally murdered, one of the key accused in the case surrendered in a court in Ernakulam on Thursday. Sahal AH, a member of the Popular Front of India (PFI), was accused of stabbing Abhimanyu to death.
It was on July 2, 2018, that 20-year-old Abhimanyu, a native of Idukki’s Vattavada and a second-year degree student of Maharajas College, got stabbed in a midnight clash that broke out between Students Federation of India (SFI) and Campus Front (the student wing of the Popular Front of India) workers. Abhimanyu was a member of SFI, the student wing of the ruling CPI(M) party. An argument between the two groups over sticking posters on the campus allegedly triggered the clash.
Out of the 16 accused in the case, the tenth accused, Sahal was alleged to have stabbed Abhimanyu. Sahal, who is part of PFI, had been absconding since the incident. He surrendered at the Principal Sessions Court in Ernakulam on Thursday morning. Sahal is charged under section 302 (punishment for murder) of the Indian Penal Code.
“He will be sent to judicial custody after conducting a test for coronavirus,” an investigation officer told TNM. With this, all 16 accused in the case have been finally nabbed.
Another accused, Muhammad Shaheem, who was absconding, had surrendered in the court in November 2019. He was the second accused in the case and is accused of stabbing and hurting Abhimanyu’s friend, Arjun, in the scuffle.
The trial of the case is ongoing in the Ernakulam Principal Sessions Court.
Abhimanyu’s parents had earlier come out expressing displeasure over the police not being able to nab all the accused in the case even a year after the murder.
Last year, Maharaja’s College also witnessed a row over SFI building a memorial for Abhimanyu to mark his first death anniversary in the college, as Kerala Students’ Union (KSU), the student wing of the Congress, opposed it.
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