Kerala: Court sentences four to 10 years in jail

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The CBI special court on Monday sentenced four men, including a former DSP, to 10 years of imprisonment after they were found guilty on charges of attempted murder of a police officer.
Former DSP M Santhosh Nair, notorious criminal A S Santhosh Kumar alias Container Santhosh, Vineesh Kumar alias Jinda Ani and Penty Edwin Austin are the guilty.The judge also imposed a penalty of Rs 50,000 on the first accused and Rs 25,000 each on the other three accused. The total penalty collected must be handed over to the complainant in the case, additional sub-inspector Babu Kumar.
The case pertains to an armed attack on Babu on January 11, 2011, while he was standing outside his residence. The attack was carried out by Edwin and Vineesh.
The prosecution case was that Edwin and Vineesh were assigned with the task of murdering Babu by DSP Nair and Container Santhosh. Nair had courted controversy after news reports emerged about his alleged nexus with criminals in the district. Nair had allegedly hosted a booze party for criminals in the government guest house, which was leaked to the media. He suspected that it was Babu, who leaked the information to the media.
After this attack, a scribe of a vernacular daily, V B Unnithan, who did a series of reports exposing this nexus, too faced a murder attempt in April 2011.
The trial of that case is pending before the CBI court. Container Santhosh had turned approver in that case.