Kochi: The Kerala High Court has acquitted eight accused in the case of trying to murder CPM leader P Jayarajan. The High Court ordered the acquittal pointing out that the prosecution had failed to produce clinching evidence.
The court found the second accused, Chirikandoth Prashanth guilty. However, the quantum of the sentence has been commuted. The trial court reduced his punishment to one-year imprisonment from 10 years of rigorous imprisonment. The copy of the judgment pronounced on January 11 was released on Thursday. The judgment was delivered by Justice Somarajan.
Earlier, the trial court had sentenced six people, including RSS district administrator Kanicherry Aji, to 10 years in prison. The court had acquitted three.
The accused approached the High Court against the punishment, while the government was against the acquittal of the three. Out of nine such accused, eight have been acquitted.
The case against them is that they attempted to murder the CPM leader at his Kathirur residence near Thalassery on the Thiruvonam day in 1999.
