SC upholds conviction of 4 CPI(M) workers for killing 2 RSS members in 2002

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of four CPI(M) workers for murdering two RSS members in March, 2002, observing that the entire story of the prosecution cannot be discarded as false, only because there are some contradictions, even not that material.

A bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Prasanna B Varale said crime creates a sense of societal fear and it affects adversely the societal conscience.

"It is inequitable and unjust if such a situation is allowed to perpetuate and continue in the society. In every civilised society, the purpose of criminal administrative system is to protect individual dignity and to restore societal stability and order and to create faith and cohesion in the society," the bench said.

The court also said the benefit of defective investigation will not inure to the accused persons on ground of faculty investigation alone.

"It is for the courts to consider the rest of the evidence which the prosecution has gathered such as statement of the eyewitnesses, medical report etc," the bench said in its judgment on January 6, 2025.

The court rejected a contention by appellants Edakkandi Dineshan alias P Dineshan and others that since there were contradictions in version of witnesses, the entire story of the prosecution is false.

"The principle of ‘falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus’ (false in one thing, false in everything) is foreign concept to our law and does not apply to the Indian criminal jurisprudence," the court said.

In its 2011 judgment, the High Court upheld 2006 trial court's judgment and convicted five persons and acquitted others. Of the five convicts, one died during the pendency of appeal.

In their arguments, besides citing contradictions in prosecution witnesses' version, the appellants claimed major interpolations in the FIR, which was lodged belatedly.

The court noted there was a long-standing political rivalry between RSS and CPI. The victims were earlier a part of CPI and they had defected and joined RSS and hence there were estranged relations between the two groups. On a call of Hartal, a clash between the followers of these two parties and ultimately, two persons lost their lives.

The court also did not find merit in the contention of the appellants about discovery of two dead bodies at a little distance, saying it cannot be the sole and decisive factor to discard the entire case of prosecution.

Although the investigation has not taken place in a proper and disciplined manner and there are various areas where a proper investigation could have strengthened its case, yet it is well within the domain of the courts to consider the rest of the evidence, the bench said.

In the present case, the bench said as the version of eyewitnesses in specifically naming the appellants have been consistent throughout the trial, "we find that there is enough corroboration to drive home the guilt of the accused persons".