Youth gets death for top lawyer's murder

Thiruvananthapuram: A youth, who strangled to death a top lawyer for whom he was working, was yesterday sentenced to death.

A court was told that Amal Raj (19), who was an office assistant, murdered M.P. Abraham in his office in Kochi on July 12 last year fearing that a financial embezzlement would be found out.

Prosecution said Raj and his accomplices had first tried to electrocute the lawyer practising in the Kerala High Court by winding a live electrical wire round his neck.

The principal sessions judge also handed down life sentences to second accused P. Shinemon (23) and third accused V. Ponnan alias Rajesh (22). Another accused, Rajadas (20), who is a brother of Rajesh, was acquitted.

The court found the accused guilty of the offences on Thursday and the sentence was pronounced yesterday. Amal Raj had withdrawn Rs800,000 (Dh72,727) from Abraham's bank account after stealing his cheque leaves and faking the signature.

The case had initially baffled the police as the investigators failed to find a clue from the crime scene that had shown signs of a prolonged struggle between the victim and the assailants. But a breakthrough came after police observing Raj found a change in his lifestyle.

In another court verdict yesterday, Usha, the wife of Manichan, who had been sentenced to life, for selling spurious liquor that led to the death of dozens of people in Kollam district, and her relative Sugathan were ordered to undergo ten years' imprisonment.