In 2017 murder of madrasa teacher, Kerala court acquits 3 ‘RSS workers’ citing ‘one-sided’ probe

Acquitting them, Kasaragod Principal Sessions judge K K Balakrishnan said, “it can be safely concluded that the investigation is not up to the standard and one sided. So, the accused are entitled to benefit of doubt.”

The madrasa teacher, Muhammed Riyas, 34, was found murdered in his room adjacent to the Muhayuddin Juma Masjid in the district on the night of March 20, 2017.

Ajesh, Nidhin and Akhilesh, all from Kudlu village in the district, were arrested days later. The prosecution alleged that the three men had entered the village and trespassed into the mosque premises “with the common intention to kill any Muslim”. It cited their involvement in at least three previous attacks on members of the Muslim community.

The court, however, said “none of the three incidents allegedly projected as reason for enmity of accused against Muslim community is proved”. The prosecution also “failed to establish any kind of connection of the accused with RSS”, the court said.

“Nothing was produced to prove the allegation that the accused are fanatic workers and believers of RSS. Therefore, it is already found that the prosecution miserably failed to prove the motive alleged against the accused,” the court said.

Slamming the police investigation, the court said three mobile phones, a memory card and five SIM cards were recovered from the room of the madrasa teacher immediately after the incident. But none of these were examined and no attempt was made to identify the call details and images stored in the devices, the court said.

“The reluctance to conduct DNA analysis of an old dhoti with blood sample of the first accused shows that the investigation was one-sided,” the court said.

“Therefore, this failure in the investigation is sufficient to consider that there are serious omissions in the collection of evidence in this case. So, this is another reason to doubt the allegation of prosecution against the first accused that he had stabbed the victim…” the court said.

Riyas’s wife, who was present in the court, called the verdict “disappointing”. His family members said they never expected such a judgment.

“The courts did not even grant bail to the accused for the past seven years. The accused were not connected with Maulavi in any manner. Even the police charge sheet clearly mentions that the crime was an attempt to create communal unrest in the region,” Riyas’s relatives said.

Slamming Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Opposition Leader V D Satheesan said Saturday’s verdict in the murder case showed “the failure of police”.

“Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan should reveal whether he had entered into a secret understanding with RSS to save the accused,” he said.