CHENNAI, Dec 23: Four Indian Muslims accused of belonging to an extremist movement were sentenced to death on Monday over the killing of a policeman that led to deadly communal riots in southern India.

A judge in Coimbatore, about 400 kilometres southwest of Chennai, said the four men knew the killing of the constable would lead to the communal riots in which 24 people died.

Mohammed Shafi, Ashiq, Abbas and Abu Dahir were sentenced to death and four of their associates were given life in prison for the Nov 29, 1997, killing of the police constable, Selvaraj.

The constable had booked three men for piling onto a motorcycle, beyond the limit on the number of passengers. Prosecutors said the three men were members of a banned movement, Al Umma, and stabbed the official to death in retaliation.

The constable’s death led to communal rioting in Coimbatore in which 24 people were killed and millions of dollars worth of property was destroyed.

In Feb 1998, another 58 people were killed in the city in a series of bomb blasts coinciding with a visit by leading Hindu right-winger Lal Krishna Advani, who is now India’s deputy prime minister.

Judge R. Prem Kumar said the death penalty was appropriate because the crime was “the gravest of the grave and the rarest of the rare”.

He said the accused were “determined to execute their intention, which was anti-society”.

The defendants pleaded innocent and said the government had framed the charges against them.

“We swear in the name of God that we are innocent,” Mohammad Ansari, who was sentenced to life in prison, said after the guilty verdict was announced on Friday.

The sentence comes less than a week after three Kashmiri Muslims were handed death sentences over a deadly attack last year on India’s parliament.

The men were accused of helping plan the Dec 13 attack on the building, which left dead 14 people, including the five assailants. —AFP