The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed an appeal filed by Tamil Nadu government against the acquittal of all the accused in the 1997 murder of All India Jihad Committee president Palani Baba alias Ahmed Ali.
A Bench of Justices S.A. Bobde and L. Nageswara Rao upheld the acquittal of the five accused, represented by senior advocate R. Basant and advocate G. Balaji, by the Madras High Court in August 2005.
Five persons, found guilty and awarded life imprisonment by the trial court, were acquitted of all charges by the Madras High Court.
Baba was murdered in Pollachi on January 28, 1997, and the trial court found all but one of the six accused guilty in 1999.
While acquitting one of the accused, Gopalasamy, it awarded life-term to five others – Sudhakaran, Manoj, Murali, Thirugnanam and Udhayakumar.
Allowing the appeal of the five, the high court’s Division Bench comprising Justice N. Dhinakar and Justice M. Chockalingam said there was no “clinching evidence” to prove the conspiracy charges against the accused, and added that important witnesses turned hostile during the trial.
The judges concluded that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges against the accused, and decided to acquit them.
