a court in Thalassery in the Indian state of Kerala, sentenced to death four Communist Party of India (CPI-M) activists

a court in Thalassery in the Indian state of Kerala, sentenced to death four Communist Party of India (CPI-M) activists for murdering a BJP (Indian Peoples’ Party) leader in Kannur district in 1996.
Thalassery Principal District Sessions Court Judge Thomas P Joseph handed down the sentence to A Sukumaran, M Surendran, K Purushothaman and T P Preman for murdering BJP district secretary Pannyannoor Chandran while he was returning home on a motorcycle on May 25, 1996.
The court sentenced the activists to two years rigorous imprisonment (RI) under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 147 (rioting), three years RI under section 148 (rioting armed with deadly weapons), one months RI under section 341 (wrongful restraint) and death penalty under IPC section 302 (murder).   All the sentences would run concurrently, the court said.