The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday sentenced Mohammed Ali, the second accused in the murder of engineering student Shyamal Mandal, to life imprisonment. The Court also imposed a fine of ₹5 lakh on him, the default of which would lead to imprisonment for a period of two years. The separate life sentences for murder and kidnapping, and rigorous imprisonment of three years for theft will run concurrently.
The Court observed that the convict had financial ability to remit the fine amount, as evident from his own statement. An amount of ₹4 lakh from the fine amount will be given to Basudev Mandal and Sumithra Mandal, parents of the deceased, as compensation. Ali, who hails from Andaman and Nicobar Islands, had in October 2005 abducted and murdered Mandal, a BTech student of the College of Engineering Thiruvananthapuram (CET), who also hailed from the Islands.
Mandal, who resided in the college hostel, was abducted by Ali and first accused Durga Bahadur, a native of Nepal who still remains at large, after telephoning him pretending to be a schoolmate who was visiting Thiruvananthapuram. A few days later, the student’s father Basudev Mandal, a retired school teacher, received a call from the kidnappers who demanded a ransom of ₹20 lakh to free his son. However, the victim’s body was found in a sack abandoned at Vellar, near the NH-66 bypass.
