Jisha Rape, Murder Case: Migrant Labourer Ameerul Islam Sentenced to Death

Thiruvanathapuram: The lone accused in the Jisha rape and murder case, a migrant labourer from Assam, was sentenced to death on Tuesday by a sessions court in Ernakulam.

Ameerul Islam will serve 10 years for rape and death for murder. Sentences will run concurrently. The judge while reading out the quantum of punishment said it was a "rarest of rare case and Islam did not deserve any mercy.”

Islam was convicted of the charges of rape, murder, illegal confinement, and trespassing on Tuesday. He is now being shifted to Viyyur Central Prison.

Reacting to the sentence, Jisha’s mother said,“No woman should face what my daughter had to.”

The Special Public Prosecutor NK Unnikrishnan had said that “the injuries meted out to Jisha was such that the case did not warrant the accused to be granted any mercy.”

Islam's lawyer had submitted a petition for reinvestigation, saying that Islam did not understand the language in which questions were asked to him. However, the court dismissed the petition.

During the quantum of sentence hearing, prosecution argued that the case is rarest of the rare and drew parallels with the Nirbhaya case.

The Jisha rape and murder case shook Kerala and was a major issue in the 2016 Assembly elections in the state.

Jisha was found murdered at her home on April 28, 2016.

Islam was found guilty under Section 342 of IPC (trespass), 342 (wrongful confinement) , 376 (rape), 376 (a) (causing death or resulting in persistent vegetative state of victim), and 302 (murder).

Jisha, a 30-year-old Dalit woman, was found murdered at her home in Perumbavoor, Ernakulam, on April 28 last year.

Islam used to work near the victim’s home. The police had made a case that witnesses had seen Islam near Jisha’s residence on the day of the murder.

The trial which spanned over two and a half months since the hearing began on April 4, 2017, saw the prosecution examine over 100 witnesses, including 15 migrant labourers, and presented 290 documents and 36 material pieces of evidence.

The case was a major issue during the 2016 Assembly elections in Kerala. The opposition had targeted the UDF government government for having “failed to ensure security for women and that the state lacked in providing basic law and order decorum.”

The case had also highlighted the need for a stricter monitoring mechanism for migrant labourers.