In a landmark judgement, the Kollam Principal Judge sentenced three men—Abbas Ali (31), Dawood Sulaiman (27), and Shamsoon Kareem Raja (33)—to life imprisonment on for their roles in the Kerala’s Kollam Collectorate bombing on November 7. The court found them guilty of orchestrating the attack, while a fourth accused, Shamsudheen, was acquitted due to insufficient evidence.
According to the charge sheet, the blast which happened on June 15, 2016, was categorised as a terrorist act, driven by revenge over the encounter killing of Ishrat Jahan in Gujarat. Ishrat Jahan was killed in a police encounter in Gujarat where she was part of a terrorist plot to assassinate then Chief Minister Narendra Modi. The conspiracy was reportedly devised in Madurai, where the second accused, Shamsoon Kareem, conducted reconnaissance by visiting the Collectorate on 26 May 2016 and photographing the area. The group later gathered at Darul Library, near the first accused’s home in Keezhaveli, Madurai in Tamilnadu to construct the bomb and plan the attack.
The prosecution detailed how Kareem Raja transported the bomb from Thenkashi to Kollam the night before the attack, placing it in an abandoned government jeep by 10 p.m. He then returned to Thenkashi. The bomb detonated at 10:50 a.m. the following morning, causing widespread alarm.
The court upheld charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) based on key evidence collected by investigators. These included a phone call to the BJP’s Thiruvananthapuram district president claiming responsibility, a video message sent to the Kochi City Police Commissioner, and a pen drive retrieved from the Malappuram Collectorate blast site. The bomb, hidden in a pressure cooker, had been placed in an unused jeep behind the treasury office.
This incident has intensified concerns raised by the RSS, BJP, VHP, and other Sangh-aligned organisations, which allege that Kerala has become a safe haven for terrorists. Both the ruling CPM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the opposition Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) have been accused of pandering to extremist groups. In light of this judgement, these claims have gained renewed credibility, particularly regarding the region’s security vulnerabilities.
