The Supreme Court stayed the death sentence of Muhammed Ameerul Islam, accused of the murder of Jisha, a law student, in Perumbavoor near Ernakulam, Kerala. The Supreme Court’s order was based on a petition filed by Islam against the verdict of the Kerala High Court.

The court also issued a notice to the state government on the petition. The Supreme Court has directed the Kerala government to submit the probation officers’ report within eight weeks. The Supreme Court has stayed the death sentence until the appeal filed by Islam is decided. The Supreme Court also ordered that the state Government’s Advocate notify the jail superintendent of the stay order.

Earlier, the Kerala High Court had upheld the death sentence awarded to Islam by the trial court for the brutal rape and murder of Jisha. Islam approached the Supreme Court against this.

A Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai, Sanjay Karol and Keralite Kalpathy Venkataraman Viswanathan directed authorities to produce Islam’s psychiatric report. Thrissur Medical College should appoint a special team for psychological examination. The Superintendent of the Viyyur Central Prison & Correctional Home, where Islam is currently housed, was instructed to produce a report on the inmate’s conduct and behaviour within eight weeks.

If there are reasons to mitigate the punishment, they should be studied, and a report should be submitted. Also, the court appointed Applied Psychologist Nuria Ansari of Project 39A to visit the jail, talk to the accused, and submit the information to the court. If necessary, Ansari can include one more person for translation.

The court also directed to submit reports related to the appeal within eight weeks. Project 39A of Delhi National Law University provided legal assistance for the accused. The Criminal Justice Research and Litigation Centre, National Law University, Delhi, also assists Islam.

Delhi-based Project 39A provides legal representation to undertrial prisoners and ‘handholds’ the inmates through legal proceedings. Their modus operandi is to establish death row prisoners have a mental illness and intellectual disability. Project 39A has helped several Islamists on death row escape the gallows by approaching the Supreme Court. Hypocrically, they claim to work for justice for women who are sexually assaulted.

The court also directed that no jail authorities or other officials be present during the conversation between Ansari and Islam. Visuals should not be recorded, but they can be voice-recorded. The court also stated that Ansari could examine medical records, prison conduct, certificates of any education, employment or employment opportunities undertaken, etc., and documents relating to Islam.

Jisha, a 30-year-old Dalit Hindu law student, was found dead in her house along the Periyar Valley Canal in Perumbavoor, Ernakulam, on 28 April 2018. After weeks of investigation and protests from her classmates in Government Law College, Ernakulam Islam, a native of Nagaon district in Assam, was arrested from Kancheepuram in Tamil Nadu in June 2016. He was 22 at the time, and Jisha was 30.

Jisha lived with her mother, a casual labourer, in a shed made of bricks and asbestos sheets. Her father had abandoned the family when she was a small child. Islam lived 500 metres away from the residence of the deceased.

Islam, born and brought­ up as a Muslim in Assam came to Kerala as a migrant labourer. Between 5.30 p.m. and 6 p.m. on that fateful day, Jisha was
alone at her residence and waiting for her mother. She had some rice and garlic for dinner. Islam barged into her residence fully drunk, with a bottle of liquor and a knife – intending to commit rape and to satisfy his lust.

When the victim persistently resisted the attempt of rape, the accused became frustrated and mercilessly attacked Jisha with the knife. He penetrated inside her genitals by inserting the knife through her vagina to the extent of taking her internal organs out. When Jisha begged for water, Islam mercilessly poured liquor into her mouth.

Islam washed and cleaned the knife, came out through the back door of the house, walked towards the canal and threw away the knife. He forgot his chappals and left for Assam by train from Aluva railway station. While proceeding by train, he also threw away the bloodstained clothes worn by him at the time of the murder.

Jisha’s body lay inside the middle room, half naked and bleeding heavily. Multiple stab wounds were present in the body, and her intestines were pulled out. Blood oozed out of her nostrils and mouth. Her fingernails were blue. Her intestines were taken in a separate transparent synthetic bag for the postmortem.

Postmortem examination revealed 38 wounds on the body. The deceased was raped and injured during the effort to resist these assaults. She was also strangled. A combination of strangulation, smothering, and bleeding caused Jisha’s death.

After reaching Assam, Islam visited his wife in West Bengal. Since he had no job, he decided to find a job at Kancheepuram in Tamilnadu, where his friends had been working. He commenced work at a company from 06.6.2016 onwards and was arrested by the police around 8.30 p.m. on 13.6.2016.

Islam denied all the incriminating circumstances appearing in the evidence against him.

The Ernakulam Principal Sessions Court condemned the accused, Ameerul Islam, to life imprisonment. Earlier this year, the Kerala High Court sentenced him to death, emphasising that the crime he committed was both heinous and extremely rare.

Islam’s petition to the Supreme Court challenged the High Court’s decision to uphold the death penalty, claiming that the trial court’s findings were founded on presumptions. Advocate Sriram Parakkat filed the petition, arguing that the High Court did not consider the accused’s socioeconomic background or clean record and that the prosecution failed to show the crime’s motive. Advocates Shreya Rastogi (of Project 39A), Aathma Sudhir Kumar and Maulshree Pathak appeared for the convict.

Perumbavoor is a dangerous town teeming with local radical Islamists who employ Rohinyan and other migrant Muslims. The place attracts suspicious characters from far and wide. Most of the economy is centred around the plywood industry.

Islamists turned the Jisha case into a casteist undertone after the deceased’s relatives, who are Dalit Hindus, complained about mistreatment and ostracisation by Islamist neighbours in the region. They hounded Jisha’s parents while the case was under investigation. Hindus stood by the family and continued to do so.

Jisha’s mother opposed the Supreme Court’s stay order. The victim’s mother asked if the accused was arrested after a proper investigation why is the study being conducted now? She wants her daughter to get justice, and for that, Islam should be given the death penalty.

A pattern of Abrahamic cold-blooded criminals escaping the noose is emerging in Kerala.

On 1 February 2011, Soumya, a resident of Palakkad district, was found severely injured on the railway track, and she succumbed to her injuries five days later. A criminal named Charley Thomas, aka ‘Govindachamy’, attacked her on the train, pushed her off the running train and raped her.

While the High Court upheld the sentence of capital punishment, the SC commuted the death term for the murder charge to seven years imprisonment and gave life imprisonment for rape in 2016. The bench was not convinced that the convict had ‘intention’ to murder because the victim survived for a few days after the incident and eventually died in hospital.

Incidentally, lawyer Biju Antony, alias BA Aloor, represented Charly and Islam. Is it time to overhaul our criminal justice system?