‘Falsely implicated’: Supreme Court acquits Sri Lankan man jailed under UAPA as an LTTE operative
The Supreme Court noted that the prosecution’s case on the question of identity rested solely on the oral testimony of two witnesses and said their “version…is completely unreliable."
The man, however, contended that though his name was Ranjan, he was not the Sri whom the police were looking for. (File photo) The Supreme Court Wednesday acquitted a Sri Lankan national convicted under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for being a member of the proscribed terror outfit Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), saying that it was a case of wrong identity.
A three-judge bench of Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Metha, and Vijay Bihnoi set aside the July 18, 2024, order of the trial court convicting and sentencing the accused, who, according to the police, was Sri alias Ranjan. The bench also set aside the April 23, 2025, judgment of the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court upholding the conviction and sentence.
The police claimed that the man, who had a passport bearing the name Ranjan, confessed that he was part of the second phase of the security detail of late LTTE chief Veluppillai Prabhakaran, who gave him the name Sri in view of his “excellent” work. He came to India in 2009 and was allegedly trying to revive the terror outfit with assistance from a former compatriot living in Switzerland.
According to police, the accused, identified as Sri, allegedly handed over 75 cyanide capsules and 60 grams of the chemical GPS-4, used in the preparation of cyanide, to a co-accused as part of a larger conspiracy. The co-accused was allegedly instructed to travel to Sri Lanka by ferry and deliver the materials to another Sri Lankan national to help reorganise LTTE cadres and eliminate rival Tamil leaders.
The appellant, however, contended that though his name was Ranjan, he was not the Sri whom the police were looking for.
The top court also concluded the two were not the same and that the appellant “has been falsely implicated in this case without there being any evidence to connect him to the crime.”
The court noted that the prosecution’s case on the question of identity rested solely on the oral testimony of two witnesses, Balachandran and Kumar Dharma Kumar, and said their “version…is completely unreliable.”
“Prima facie, it appears that the duo, who had themselves brought their relatives from Sri Lanka under false identities and were under the scrutiny of the investigating agency, were, by way of a bargain, prevailed upon to implicate the appellant (accused) in the present case as the absconding accused ‘Sri’ …just in order to give a closure to the case. It is therefore, clearly a case where the appellant has been falsely implicated by being assigned the identity of another person, namely, the so-called absconding accused ‘Sri’,” Justice Mehta writing for the bench said.
“Investigating agency has not placed on record any material to demonstrate the steps taken by it to locate, apprehend, and bring the said absconding accused to trial. Such inaction and indolence on the part of the investigating agency casts a serious doubt on the bona fides of its conduct.”
The appellant’s wife and son were granted visas by Switzerland in 2014, and they sought asylum and were granted citizenship.
The appellant stated that he had applied for a Swiss visa through his wife and was granted one in July 2021, subject to police clearance. However, while awaiting the clearance, he was arrested by the Q Branch of the Tamil Nadu Police, which alleged that his real name was “Sri” alias “Ranjan” and that he was an accused in a pending case before the Principal District and Sessions Judge in Ramanathapuram.
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