Jisha rape case: Ameer-ul-Aslam, a migrant worker from Assam has been sentenced to death.
The accused in Jisha rape and murder case, Ameer-ul-Aslam, a migrant worker from Assam, who was convicted of raping and murdering the law student in April last year has been given a death sentence by a court in Kerala's Ernakulam district today. He has been proven guilty under various sections of the IPC, including Sections 449 (trespass), 342 (wrongful confinement), 302 (murder), 376 (Rape), 376 (A) (causing death resulting in persistent vegetative state). Jisha, a 30-year-old law student in Kerala, was raped and murdered last year in April and Jisha's body was found with the intestines hanging out. Jisha was found dead inside her home in Ernakulam and bore signs of strangling and 30 wounds on her body. The incident had chilling echoes of the 2012 gang-rape of Delhi medical student Jyoti Singh, who came to be known as Nirbhaya. The outrage after the incident led to new laws on crimes against women in the country.
The crime jolted Kerala and provoked massive public outcry and political blame game over the law and order situation in Kerala. It also brought to focus the family's struggle with poverty as Jisha shared a small one-room home without a toilet with her mother and sister. Activists argued that the victim's simple background dissuaded the wider anger and attention that the crime should have commanded.
After 10 days of the barbaric crime, Jisha's sister was given a government job and was also promised a new home as part of her compensation.
As many as 100 witnesses were probed, more than 100 policemen questioned, over 1,500 people and fingerprints of over 5,000 people were examined by a Special Investigation Team that went through over 20 lakh telephonic conversations before zeroing in the accused Ameer, Jisha's neighbour.
The police said blood-stained footwear found from a canal near Jisha's house was an important piece of evidence in identifying the accused.
After 50 days of sinister crime, Ameer was arrested and on September 18, 2016 and a charge sheet which ran into 1,500 pages and had statements of witnesses including Ameer's friends and Jisha's neighbours was filed. The police said that Ameer entered Jisha's house with the intention of raping her but hit her with sharp objects after she resisted. This led to her death, the police had said.