Supreme Court upholds conviction of four CPI(M) workers for the murder of two RSS workers

The Supreme Court recently upheld the conviction of four Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) workers for the murder of two Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) members in March 2002 [Edapaddi Dineshan vs State of Kerala]..The Bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Prasanna B Varale upheld a Kerala High Court ruling in the matter, after noting that minor contradictions in witness testimonies were not enough to discard the prosecution's case. "Either a partial, untrue version of one of the witnesses or an exaggerated version of a witness may not be a sole reason to discard the entire prosecution case which is otherwise supported by clinching evidence such as truthful version of the witnesses, medical evidence, recovery of the weapons etc.," it added. .The Court observed there is a long-standing political rivalry between the RSS and CPI (M), which could have led to minor discrepancies in the witness statements given by rival political members. Notably, in this case, some of the witnesses were also former CPI (M) workers who had defected to the RSS.In any case, the Court observed that there was sufficient material to establish the guilt of the appellants."The witnesses could have tried to implicate anyone had they wished to take advantage of their past acquaintance and recent rivalry ...There is no contradiction when it comes to assigning specific role to the above accused. Admittedly, there was an enmity between the witnesses as they were from different political groups," reads the judgment..The case concerned the death of two RSS workers, Sunil and Sujeesh in 2002 amid clashes between the CPI (M) and the RSS. The RSS had called for a hartal at the time, which was opposed by the CPI (M). Amid the violence that followed, a mob is said to have chased down a group of eleven persons including the deceased RSS workers. While the others escaped, Sunil and Sujeesh were attacked and succumbed to their injuries. Several CPI (M) workers were booked in the criminal case registered over the RSS workers' death and all of the accused were convicted by a trial court in 2006. In 2011, the Kerala High Court upheld the trial court's conviction of five CPI(M) workers, but acquitted the remaining accused. The five CPI(M) workers who remained convicted then filed an appeal before the Supreme Court. One of these convicts died during the pendency of the appeal.On January 6, the Supreme Court upheld the conviction of the remaining four appellants. .The appellants had cited contradictions in the testimonies of prosecution witnesses and claimed that there were major interpolations in the first information report (FIR), which they added was lodged belatedly.The top court, however, did not find merit in these arguments. While holding that minor contradictions in witness testimonies were not sufficient to dismiss the prosecution's case, the Bench also emphasised that the principle of ‘falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus’ (false in one thing, false in everything) is not applicable in India. "The entire submissions of the appellants were that since there are contradictions, the entire story of the prosecution is false. As we have already mentioned above, the principle of ‘falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus’ does not apply to the Indian criminal jurisprudence and only because there are some contradictions which in the opinion of this Court are not even that material, the entire story of the prosecution cannot be discarded as false. It is the duty of the Court to separate the grain from the chaff," the Court held. .[Read Judgment]