The Supreme Court has dismissed the petition challenging the concurrent conviction of murder accused held by two courts, observing that a worker of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), youth wing of Communist Party of India, was cut into pieces by sword.
The Bench of Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice Aniruddha Bose, while deciding not to interfere with the Judgement of the Kerala High Court, on Tuesday also flayed the High Court for curbing the sentence of the accused from six to three years.
The petition was filed by accused Sadasivan, Madhu, Mohanan and Suresh, who were convicted under Sections 143, 147, 148, 149, 324, 452, 427 and 307 of IPC.
Senior Advocate R Basant appeared on behalf of all four petitioners and submitted that Section 149 of IPC against the accused does not meet out and these persons have falsely been implicated. They were not carrying armed weapons, and injured the witnesses have not been examined yet, said Mr Basant.
The Court stated that after three findings of court, “If we have to examine like Trial Court, it would become difficult for us to do.”
According to the prosecution, 17 persons, allegedly having connection with RSS, had attacked a DYFI worker, with sword, iron rods, sticks and hand bombs, leading to his death.
All 17 were charged under Sections 143, 147, 148, 149, 452, 427, 324, 307 and 436 of the IPC and Section 3 of the Explosive Substances Act.
The Kerala High Court had held, “Determination of common object of an unlawful assembly is essentially a question of fact keeping in view the nature of the assembly, arms carried by the members and the behaviour of the members at or near the scene and a host of similar or connected facts.
“It is trite law that the substantial evidence is the identification of accused in court. It is true that no test identification parade was conducted in this case. Under such circumstances, test identification parade is not compulsory.
Read Also: Delhi High Court to hear plea challenging constitutional validity of IT Rules, 2021
“In Masalti vs State of UP [1965 KHC 476], the Apex Court held that where a crowd of assailants who are members of an unlawful assembly proceeds to commit an offence in pursuance of the common object of the unlawful assembly, it is often not possible for witnesses to explain the part played by each one of the assailants,” the High Court had observed. It had reduced the sentence of the accused under Section 307 IPC from six to three years.