KANNUR: The Thalassery Additional District Sessions Court (one) has sentenced Muhammed Afsal, 36, accused in the murder of a girl to life imprisonment. Judge V. Jayaram also imposed a fine of Rs. 50,000 on him observing that the murder had shocked the collective psyche of society, but that it was not the rarest of rare cases.
The incident happened on January 23, 2004 when Afsal of Morakunnu in Thalassery murdered Shafna, 18, of Chirakara in Thalassery, on the courtyard of her house for rejecting his advances. Shafna was hacked to death with a sword in front of her mother as she, a degree student at a parallel college, returned from the college.
Afsal, who was arrested on the day of the murder itself, was later released on bail. But he went to Kuwait by getting a fake passport from Bangalore and worked in an internet cafe owned by his brother-in-law for eight years and stayed with his sister. But Shafna’s father Sammootty pursued the case and got Afsal arrested with the help of Interpol. The Thalassery police went to Kuwait and nabbed him.
Shafna’s mother Jameela was the only witness in the case and she identified the accused during the trial. The government had appointed a special prosecutor in the case on the demand of Sammotty. The court directed to give Rs 40,000 to Jameela from the fine.
