On Tuesday, 12th July 2022, a division bench of the Kerala High Court acquitted 13 RSS workers who were convicted to life terms by a trial court in connection with the murder of a CPI(M) worker named Vishnu in 2008. The 13 RSS workers were convicted by the Thiruvananthapuram Additional District and Sessions Court, following which, they appealed in Kerala High Court in 2016.
While acquitting them, the honourable court ripped into the prosecution for relying on a fabricated story to seek the conviction of the RSS workers. A Division Bench of Justice K. Vinod Chandran and Justice C. Jayachandran observed that the prosecution case reeked of a deliberate attempt to tutor witnesses, collect evidence and define a scripted story.
The court further noted, “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.”
Further slamming the prosecution, the court said, “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.”
Vishnu murder case in Kerala in 2008
On April 1, 2008, DYFI (youth wing of CPM) leader Vishnu was hacked to death in front of the Kaithamukku passport office. All the suspects who underwent trial for the murder are RSS workers. The Thiruvananthapuram Additional Sessions Court had found 13 RSS workers guilty. 11 out of them were given double life imprisonment, one was sentenced to life, and another one was sentenced to 3 years.
However, Kerala High Court noted that there was no evidence to send these RSS workers to prison in the mentioned murder case, and it was all a scripted story based on the political rivalry between the groups.
