Kochi, Apr 12: A teenager was sentenced to death by a court here for murdering his septuagenarian employer, a senior advocate of the Kerala High Court, after fraudulently withdrawing Rs six lakh from his account. Two other accused-- Rajesh (21) and Shimon (23) have been sentenced to life by Ernakulam Principal Session Judge D Pappachan yesterday.

Awarding the sentence, the Judge held that the youth, Amalraj (19), was a confidant of the advocate, M P Abraham, but had turned out to be his annihilator. The murder had triggered extreme indignation in the community, he said, noting it was a well planned cold blooded murder.

On July 12 last year, the convicts waited near the victim's office till the other staff had left. They then forcibly brought him down from his room and tried to electrocute him.

When they found the victim had not died, the three strangulated him. According to the prosecution, it was Amalraj, working as a clerk in Abraham's office, who hatched the conspiracy to do away with him after he was scolded by his employer for not maintaining office records properly.

Amalraj had also withdrawn about rs six lakh from the advocate's account using his cheque books. Fearing that Abraham had come to know about the withdrawal of the money, he decided to do away with him and hired the two other accused.

The court also directed Amalraj to pay a fine of Rs 17,000 and awarded life term for the offences under section 302 (murder), 109 (abetment), 120(B) (criminal conspiracy), 10 years imprisonment under section 450 (house trespass) and five years imprisonment under section 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of the IPC. A fine of Rs 15,000 each was imposed on the other two accused.