1993 Panchayat Poll violence: SC sets aside order of HC acquitting 32 CPI(M) workers

The Supreme Court today set aside an order of Calcutta High Court acquitting 32 CPI(M) workers in case of 1993 post Panchayat poll violence involving Left and Indian People's Front members in which five people were killed and over two dozen grievously injured.

A bench of justices N V Ramana and M M Shantanagoudar set aside the June 30, 2004, order of the high court and remitted it back to decide the revision petition afresh on merit in accordance with law.

It said that the High Court has failed to consider whether the trial court discarded material evidence in the form of eyewitness testimony on the issues of murder, attempt to murder and grievous hurt and completely overlooked evidence on other charges such as unlawful assembly and house-burning.

"Consequently, we find that the High Court has not given due consideration to the evidence on record to arrive at a reasoned conclusion and has thus failed to exercise its revisional jurisdiction in accordance with established principles," the bench said.

The top court said it would be appropriate for the High Court to undertake proper consideration of the material of the matter once again with due application of the judicial mind to find out as to whether the trial court's order has caused "gross miscarriage of justice, manifest illegality or perversity".

From the aforementioned decision, it is clear that where the material evidence has been overlooked either by the trial court or by the appellate court or the order is passed by considering irrelevant evidence, the revisional jurisdiction can be exercised by the High Court, the court said.

"In the matter on hand, as already mentioned, material evidence has been overlooked by the trial court and the High Court was incorrect in observing that the witnesses have deposed for the first time before the court," the bench said.

Dealing with the facts of the case, the bench said that the contradictions and improvements in testimonies of witnesses were minor in nature which were mainly with regard to weapons used.

"The presence of the witnesses is not in dispute, and the fact that 24 witnesses have suffered injuries cannot be disputed either. Five deaths have also taken place," it said and ruled out the possibility of injuries due to stampede saying "there is no reason as to why only one group of people would sustain injuries in the alleged stampede, if any".

The case relates to incident of violence which had taken place on May 31, 1993 at Karanda village of Burdwan district where the CPI (M) party won and the IPF party had lost the Panchayat elections a day earlier.

On May 31, 1993, at around 8.30 am, 15 to 16 members of the IPF party took shelter in the house of Badal Malik, their party leader, on being chased by some 250-300 CPI(M) workers, all being armed with weapons such as lathi, balam and tangi.

According to prosecution, CPI(M) party workers set afire the houses of IPF members, including party leader Badal Malik, assaulted IPF members and broke into the houses of the locality. They destroyed household articles, apart from stealing an amount of Rs.700 and snatching a pair of gold earrings.

In the assault on IPF members, five persons expired and 24 persons were seriously injured and a case was lodged at Memari Police Station, Burdwan District for the offences including murder, attempt to murder, rioting and arson.

Upon examining the evidence, the trial court acquitted all 32 accused in the case, a decision which was affirmed by the Calcutta High Court.