KOCHI : The state government has filed an appeal before the Kerala High Court, challenging the order of the Sessions Court, Kasaragod, acquitting three RSS men who were accused in the 2017 murder of madrasa teacher, Riyas Moulavi.
The trial court acquitted Ajesh, Nidhin Kumar, and Akhilesh, stating that the prosecution failed to prove the offences alleged against them.
The government submitted that the conclusive and unshaken evidence, including scientific evidence produced by the prosecution, which completed the chain of circumstances leading only to the conclusion of guilt of the accused and none other, was discarded by the trial court. The prosecution submitted that the accused persons being RSS workers had hatred against the Muslim community. With a common intention to kill any Muslim person, they trespassed into the Muhayuddeen mosque at old Choori and killed Riyas.
The appeal stated that though the people of the state have enormous reasons to be proud of the collective harmony and communal peace, sometimes it breaks at the hands of poisonous communal elements. This is one such crime with all its characteristics.
The circumstantial evidence produced in the case was such that it had created a network of evidence so that there was no scope for acquittal of the accused.
The evidence produced was clear and unimpeachable. The sessions court was wholly unjustified in discarding the clear and clinching evidence pointing to the guilt of the accused.
The reasons given by the trial court to acquit the accused were far-fetched and fanciful. The order on the acquittal of the accused was faulty and shocking to the judicial conscience.
The appreciation of evidence by the trial court was wholly against the principles of law laid down by the Supreme Court.
The finding of the trial court that the prosecution failed to prove the motive of the accused to commit the crime was wrong. The observation that the prosecution failed to prove that the accused belonged to RSS was also against the evidence produced by the prosecution.
The evidence tendered by the prosecution was capable enough to prove the fact that the accused entertained hostility against persons belonging to Muslim community.
‘Acquittal shocking’
The acquittal order was faulty and shocking to the judicial conscience, the prosecution said
The appreciation of evidence by the trial court was wholly against the principles of law laid down by the Supreme Court, it said
