SC acquits RSS sympathiser in a murder case

New Delhi, Apr 30 (UNI) The Supreme court has acquitted an RSS sympathiser who was given life imprisonment for killing a member of a minority community in Tirupur in Tamil Nadu.

A bench comprising Justices S B Sinha and Markandey Katju gave the benefit of doubt to the appellant Ravi alias Ravi Chandran who was found guilty of stabbing to death one John Basha on August 9, 1993, whom he suspected to be involved in an incident of throwing bomb at RSS office.

The trial court on September 17, 1996 found the appellant guilty of murder and his associate Uday Kumar was convicted for attempt to murder.

In all, five accused were also tried for the offence of hatching a conspiracy against the minority community. The Madras High Court dismissed their appeal.

The photographs of the two accused along with their names were published in a Tamil daily ''Dinakaran'' and Test Identification Parade (TIP) was not held properly to establish the identity of the accused persons.

The court, while setting aside both the trial and high court judgement, noted ''in a case of this nature it was incumbent upon the prosecution to arrange a TIP. Such TIP was required to be held as early as possible so as to exclude the possibility of the accused being identified either at the police station or at some other place by the concerned witnesses or with reference to the photograph published in the Newspaper. A conviction should not be based on a vague identification. He is, in our opinion, at least entitled to benefit of doubt. The appeal is allowed the appellant shall be released forthwith if not required in any other case.'' UNI