The Kerala High Court has on December 13, suspended the life imprisonment sentence given to MK Nasar, one of the persons convicted for the assault on professor TJ Joseph, whose hand was chopped by Islamists over a rumour of ‘blasphemy’ against Prophet Mohammad.
MK Nasar was convicted in the assault case and was given life sentence by a NIA special court earlier. The High Court’s justification for suspending the sentence was stated as ‘Nasar has already been imprisoned for over 9 years’.
The division bench of Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan V and Justice PV Balakrishnan observed that Nasar, the 3rd accused in NIA’s case, has been in jail for over 9 years now and that he had surrendered on November 6, 2015, but the trial did not begin until June 23, 2021, and the judgment was delivered only in July 12, 2023.
NIA in its prosecution had stated that MK Nasar was the main conspirator behind the assault on the professor. He was the one who had planned the entire thing and had even recruited persons to carry out the brutal assault on Professor TJ Joseph when he was visiting a Church with his family on July 4, 2010.
Professor Joseph was accused of blasphemy by Islamists after somebody spread the rumour that he has insulted Prophet Muhammad in one of the questions in a paper that he had set.
MK Nasar was convicted under section 20 of the UAPA, sections 302 and 120(B) of the IPC and section 3 of the Explosive Substances Act.
