A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Wednesday sought the response of the prosecution on an appeal filed by the four accused workers of Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) challenging the judgment of the Alappuzha District and Sessions Court sentencing them to capital punishment for murdering Ranjith Sreenivasan, State Secretary of the OBC Morcha of the Bharatiya Janata Party,. The Bench led by Justice P.B. Suresh Kumar sought the views when the appeals filed accused Naisam, Ajmal, Anoop and Muhammed Aslam came up for hearing. The appeal pointed out that the judgment was against the law and evidence in the case. Therefore, it was an incorrect judgement. The appeal pointed out that the charges framed by the trial court was defective and that had caused considerable prejudice to all the accused. The trial court ought to have found that there was no sufficient and trustworthy evidence from the side of the prosecution to prove the guilt of the accused. In fact, the prosecution had failed to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt. The appeal pointed out that the trial judge had approached the case in an emotional manner rather than considering it on merits as the trial judge had referred the deceased as advocate throughout the judgment. The trial court went wrong in finding that the commission of the crime shocked the minds of the people as well as judicial conscience. The appeal also said that the identification of the assailants by the witnesses was conducted, long after the arrest of the accused. Besides, there were contradictions and considerable discrepancies in the statements of the witnesses. There was no fair trial in the case. The court should have accepted the defence case and acquitted all the accused.
