The Kerala high court has acquitted 13 Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh workers in a case relating to the killing of a Communist Party of India-Marxist activist in Thiruvananthapuram in 2008, saying the prosecution had miserably failed to prove the incriminating circumstances against the accused.
A bench comprising Justices K Vinod Chandran and C Jayachandran on Tuesday allowed the appeal filed by the RSS workers challenging a sessions court verdict convicting them.
The bench observed that the political rivalry was a simmering cauldron of intrigue, spite and deceit, often spewing out the venom of hatred, in the form of mindless bloodshed.
"The manner in which events were portrayed before the court, smacks of a deliberate attempt to tutor witness and collect evidence, to define a scripted story. The sad saga of political rivalry and mindless killing, as we have noticed in many cases, tears under the social fabric of the state," it said.
"The yearly remembrances, only stoke the fires of rivalry and do not wipe the tears of the bereaved or awaken the conscience of those who matter. Another life is lost and yet another prosecution fails, both lying on the wayside, grim reminders to the society of the futility of it all. We cannot but acquit the accused of the charges levelled against them; the prosecution having miserably failed to prove the incriminating circumstances against the accused."
"There is absolutely no evidence worth its salt, and the prosecution failed to prove any corroborative circumstance, but for the political rivalry existing between two groups," it added.
The court noted that the getaway of the accused was quick and the witnesses exaggerated the identification and the details of the get-away vehicles.
On December 16, 2016, the additional sessions court in Thiruvananthapuram had sentenced 13 RSS activists to double life imprisonment in connection with the murder of CPI-M worker, V V Vishnu, on April 1, 2008.
The lower court had found all the 13 accused guilty of murder of the CPI-M activist.
