An Indian court Thursday handed down the death penalty to a man found guilty of raping and murdering a law student in a brutal knife attack in southern Kerala state. The murdered student was found dead in a pool of blood in her home in Perumbavoor town on April 28, 2016, with nearly 30 stab wounds and bite marks on her severely disfigured corpse. Muhammed Ameerul Islam was convicted by a district court in Kerala over the gruesome attack which sparked nationwide outrage and drew comparisons with the high-profile gang-rape and murder of a Delhi student in 2012. Prosecutors successfully sought the death penalty for the crime, describing it as “rarest of the rare” in its violent nature. “The court sentenced him to death for murder and life sentence for rape,” B. A. Aloor, Islam’s lawyer told AFP. He said his client was not treated to a fair trial and the defence team would appeal the sentence in a higher court. Published in Daily Times, December 15th 2017.