KOCHI: An additional district and sessions court in Kerala’s Thalassery Saturday acquitted 13 members of National Development Front – the previous avatar of the banned Popular Front of India – and found only one of the 14 accused guilty, in connection with the murder of RSS functionary T Ashwini Kumar in Kannur district almost two decades back. Judge Philip Thomas will pronounce the quantum of punishment against accused number M V Marshok, on Nov 14.
The acquitted persons are Nurul Ameen, P K Aziz, P M Siraj, M K Yunus, C P Mummer, A Ali, Noufal, Yakoob, Mustafa, Basheer, K Shammas, K Shanavas and Basheer. The accused were set free due to lack of evidence to prove their involvement in the crime. The court also cited investigation flaws in the case.
Ashwini Kumar was the Kannur district boudhik pramukh of RSS and district convener of Hindu Aikya Vedi. He was also a teacher of a parallel college in Iritty. The RSS leader was murdered in broad daylight near Iritty on March 10, 2005 while he was travelling in a private bus. A four-member gang entered the bus and hacked him to death while others waited outside the vehicle and hurled crude bombs to create panic among the passengers.
The chargesheet was filed by a crime branch team on July 31, 2009, listing 14 NDF members as accused. But, the first and second accused were absconding and they surrendered in 2012. The trial in the case had begun in 2018.
Special public prosecutor Joseph Thomas said that there were several lapses in the police investigation. “The motive of the murder was religious intolerance. The prosecution will appeal against the trial court verdict. When key two accused surrendered years later, the police did not question them,” he said in Thalassery.