Kannur: A Taliparamba court sentenced two brothers to 12 years in prison and their friend to nine years for abducting and brutally assaulting their sister’s live-in partner, holding that family consent was not required for two adults to marry or enter into a live-in relationship.
Additional District and Sessions Judge KN Prasanth ordered the sentences to run concurrently, meaning the three accused would effectively serve seven years in prison each for the attack, which took place in January 2019.
In a strong condemnation of what it described as “moral policing”, the court held that a person’s choice to enter a live-in relationship was protected by the Constitution and that there was “no scope for misplaced sympathy” towards those who attacked the man over that choice.
“Needless to say, only because of his personal choice of a live-in relationship, a man was abducted from a public road and suffered a brutal attack with lethal weapons, which culminated in severe injuries,” the court said.
“Regrettably, the act of the accused is nothing but moral policing and does not deserve any mercy,” the judge observed, adding that there was no scope for misplaced sympathy and that the punishment should not be too lenient to serve the interests of justice.
Fasilul Rahman(37) of Udumbunthala in Kasaragod’s Trikaripur was attacked after he chose to live with Shahina, the sister of two of the accused, B Mubarak (37) and B Abdulla (47) of Pallivayal at Panniyur in Kannur’s Kurumathur panchayat.
Fasilul, who is now married to Shahina, arrived at court on Wednesday for the judgment. His legs remained swollen, and he was unable to work as he did before the assault, public prosecutor Adv U Ramesan said. His right kneecap was fractured in the attack.
“Even after seven years, he still cannot bend his left leg,” Shahina told Onmanorama.
Mubarak and Abdulla were sentenced to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment for voluntarily causing grievous hurt with dangerous weapons, three years for abduction, and two years for wrongful restraint and causing hurt with dangerous weapons under Sections 341, 323 and 324 of the IPC. Their friend Ibrahim P (37) was sentenced for the same offences, except abduction, with his aggregate punishment calculated at nine years. As the sentences will run concurrently, all three will serve seven years.
Mubarak and Abdulla were fined ₹2.2 lakh each, while Ibrahim was fined ₹1.2 lakh. If the fines are recovered, ₹5 lakh was to be paid to Fasilul as compensation, the court ordered.
Fasilul and Shahina, who had previously been married, began living together after divorcing their spouses. Shahina’s brothers opposed the relationship.
On January 20, 2019, Fasilul and Shahina went to Payyambalam beach and were returning home on a scooter when they noticed Mubarak following them on a motorcycle with another person.
Fearing they were being chased, the couple took an inner route before reaching the area near Oman Mosque at Pushpagiri. Shahina entered the mosque to pray while Fasilul waited outside. When she returned about 10 minutes later, Fasilul was missing, and his phone was switched off.
The prosecution said four men intercepted Fasilul near the mosque, assaulted him and forcibly took him away on a motorcycle. He was taken to a shed in a rubber plantation near the Panniyur Village Office, where the accused and several others allegedly attacked him with an iron rod and a wooden baton.
Fasilul told the court that the assault lasted about one-and-a-half hours and continued until he lost consciousness. An autorickshaw driver, Krishnan alias Unni, later found him lying injured by the roadside and took him to the Taliparamba Cooperative Hospital. He was subsequently shifted to hospitals in Pariyaram, Kannur and finally in Kozhikode.
The defence, represented by Adv Satheesh V A, argued that the case was falsely foisted on the accused because of the family dispute. The accused claimed Fasilul sustained his injuries in a chain-snatching incident near Oman Mosque.
The court rejected the defence version, citing the iron rod recovered by police, the testimony of prosecution witnesses and medical records.
The prosecution said the relationship was the source of hostility between Fasilul and Shahina’s brothers. Shahina also told Onmanorama that she was ousted from her family and denied her share of family property after choosing to live with Fasilul.
Though the brothers sought leniency after being found guilty, the judge noted that Fasilul had suffered severe injuries resulting in physical disability and that “the injuries had spoiled his life”, showing “no sympathy”.
