Attingal twin murder: Kerala High Court commutes death sentence of accused Nino Mathew

The Kerala High Court on Friday commuted the death penalty imposed on one of the accused in the 2014 twin murder case in Kerala's Attingal to life imprisonment [Nino Mathew v. State of Kerala].A Division Bench of Justices PB Suresh Kumar and Johnson John set aside the death sentence that was imposed on accused Nino Mathew by the trial court. The High Court also upheld the sentence of life imprisonment handed down to the other accused, Anu Shanthi.Thus, both accused would now have to serve life term in jail. Mathew would not be eligible for remission of his sentence, the Court clarified..In 2014, Mathew, a software engineer in Thiruvananthapuram's Technopark, allegedly went to Shanthi's house and introduced himself as Shanthi's husband Lijeesh's friend. On entering the home, he stabbed the Shanthi's mother-in-law and child to death.Lijeesh was also attacked, but escaped the attempt on his life with injuries and was able to alert the neighbours. Within 24 hours of the incident, the State police arrested Nino, who confessed to the crime. They later arrested Shanthi as well after an extra-marital affair between her and Mathew came to light. They had planned to eliminate Lijeesh, his mother and the infant daughter of Lijeesh and Shanthi. The duo were charged for murder, criminal conspiracy, attempt to destroy evidence and theft. The charge of transmitting obscene material in electronic form was also added, after the police found some explicit videos of the two on Mathew's digital devices.In 2016, Mathew and Shanthi were found guilty of murder by the Thiruvananthapuram Principal Sessions Court. Mathew was given death sentence while Shanthi was sentenced to life imprisonment..Both Shanthi and Mathew filed appeals before the Kerala High Court in 2016 while the State filed a death sentence reference to confirm the death penalty. .The Court reviewed the mitigating factors presented by Mathew's lawyer and the Mitigation Investigation Report. It found that Mathew had no previous criminal record and changed his death sentence to 25 years of life imprisonment..Notably, the Court had last year ordered mitigation studies to be conducted into the death sentence reference of Nino Mathew as well as a death sentence reference made with respect to Muhammed Ameer-ul-Islam who was convicted in the Dalit law student murder case. At the time, a Bench of Justice Alexander Thomas (now retired) and Justice C Jayachandran had appointed two mitigation investigators associated Project 39A (a criminal justice programme at National Law University Delhi that represents death row prisoners) to assist the court with deciding whether the death penalty was warranted for the two convicts. .Senior Counsel P Vijay Bhanu along with advocates Sruthy KK, George Mathew, Sasthamangalam S, Haris Ali, KR Rajaish, KS Stejo, VS Thoshin appeared for Nino Mathew.Advocates VK Biju, Sylaja Varghese and Sampath V Toms appeared for Anu Shanthi. Special Public Prosecutor Ambika Devi S appeared for the state..[Read Judgment]