Kerala Police enhance judge’s security cover amid online threats after murder case verdict

PTI, Jan 31, 2024, 7:40 PM IST

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Alappuzha: Kerala Police increased the security cover given to Mavelikkara Additional Sessions Judge-I V G Sreedevi on Wednesday, as threats have been made against her on various social media platforms after she pronounced the verdict in the murder of BJP OBC wing leader Ranjith Sreenivasan.

A police officer told PTI that they have taken serious note of the online threats and deployed a sub-inspector and a few other police personnel to safeguard the judge.

The court on Tuesday sentenced 15 people associated with the now-banned outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) to death in connection with the 2021 murder of the BJP OBC wing leader that took place in Alappuzha district.

Soon after, posts on social media platforms verbally insulting the judge cropped up and were circulated by various accounts.

In the order, the court said there was “absolute justification” in giving capital punishment to all the accused persons in this case.

Sreenivasan, a lawyer and the BJP OBC Morcha state secretary, was brutally attacked and killed in his home on December 19, 2021, in front of his family, by activists affiliated with PFI and the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI).

Police at the time said they suspect that the murder was in retaliation for the killing of SDPI leader K S Shan just hours earlier. The trial in Shan’s murder case has not yet begun.