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Time of India

BJP activist's murder: Kerala high court acquits 5 CPM workers

Kochi: High court has acquitted five CPM workers — Akhilesh alias Akhil, Bijesh alias Manushyakuttan, M Kalesh, P K Shyjesh and K C Vineesh — who had been sentenced to life imprisonment by Thalassery additional sessions court in connection with the 2008 murder of BJP worker K V Surendran. According to prosecution, Surendran, 62, was hacked to death on March 7, 2008, at his residence near Thalassery, allegedly due to political enmity amidst recurring clashes between CPM and BJP/RSS activists. The accused were alleged to have trespassed into the deceased's house and attacked him with deadly weapons. During the incident, Surendran's wife, Soumini, was allegedly threatened and wrongfully restrained by the accused Shyjesh. The trial court had convicted the five accused and sentenced them to life imprisonment, imposing a fine of Rs 1 lakh each. The conviction was primarily based on the testimony of Soumini, the sole eyewitness. In the appeals filed by the accused, the bench of Justices V Raja Vijayaraghavan and K V Jayakumar observed that the prosecution's case rested entirely on Soumini's evidence. On evaluating her testimony, HC noted that she had introduced several new facts during her deposition in court that were absent from her earlier statements. HC also found her conduct — such as not informing her children, not inquiring about the hospital where her husband had been taken and not attempting to administer first aid — to be highly unnatural and inconsistent with the ordinary course of human behaviour. HC, therefore, held her testimony to be unreliable and untrustworthy, and further questioned the credibility of her presence at the scene of the crime. In the absence of corroboration on material particulars, the bench concluded that a conviction solely based on her testimony could not be sustained. Finding that the prosecution had failed to establish the appellants' guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, the HC set aside the trial court's judgment and acquitted all five accused.