The Kerala High Court on Wednesday suspended the conviction and 10-year sentence of former Lakshadweep MP Mohammed Faizal in an attempt to murder case. The court extended the same relief to three other convicts, including Faizal’s brother - Sayed Mohammed Nurul Ameen - in the case. On January 11, a Kavaratti Sessions court sentenced them to 10 years in jail and imposed a fine of Rs one lakh each, for attempting to kill Mohammed Salih, son-in-law of late Congress leader and former Union Minister P M Sayeed, during the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. Faizal, a Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader was disqualified from the membership of Lok Sabha after his conviction. In April 2009, Faizal along with a group of people attacked Mohammed Salih during the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. Sayeed’s son Muhammed Hamdulla Sayeed, a Congress candidate, had emerged as the winner. The prosecution had found that Faizal and others had chased Salih when he tried to flee from the spot of the attack, broke open the room of a house where he had taken shelter, and attacked him with weapons. A severely wounded Salih was flown to Kerala, where he underwent treatment for months. Of the 35 accused, only four, including Faizal and his brother, were convicted. The Union Territory (UT) of Lakshadweep had opposed the suspension of the sentence of the convicts, saying that granting them the relief would "shake the people's faith in the judicial process." It also said the offence committed by Faizal and his brother, who was a teacher in a government school, had shocked the society of the island archipelago where few crimes are reported.
