Kannur: The Thalassery Additional Sessions Court has acquitted all 16 accused, including Kodi Suni, in the New Mahe double murder case. Two of the accused, Mohammed Rajees and C K Rajikant, died during the course of the trial, while the court on Wednesday cleared the remaining 14 of all charges.

The accused, all CPM workers, were on trial for the murder of RSS activists Vijith and Shinoj from Pallur in 2010. Those acquitted include N K Sunil Kumar alias ‘Kodi’ Suni, K K Muhammed Shafi, and K Shinoj—who are already serving sentences in the T P Chandrasekharan murder case—along with T Sujith, T K Sumesh, T P Shameel, A K Shammas, K K Abbas, Rahul, K V Vineesh, P V Vijith, Faisal, Sarish, and T P Sajeer.

The defence argued that the prosecution failed to produce credible evidence or reliable witnesses. According to them, key witness O P Rajeesh had initially named 15 people, but 13 of them were not among the 16 accused in court—a major lapse, they said, on the part of the prosecution. There was also no clear evidence showing who had thrown the bomb. Traces of the explosion were found not on the New Mahe–Perumabadi road but inside a nearby goat farm compound.

The defence further pointed out that there were no independent witnesses, even though the attack occurred on a busy road. Most witnesses were BJP and RSS members, and their testimonies contained several contradictions. They also alleged that much of the evidence was fabricated, citing that weapons allegedly used in the May attack were recovered only in July. Some witnesses claimed to have identified these weapons in June, contradicting the prosecution’s statement that they were recovered based on the second accused’s confession.

The double murder took place on May 28, 2010, near Poosarikovil in New Mahe. Vijith and Shinoj were brutally hacked to death after a bomb was thrown to create panic. The attack happened while the duo was returning home after attending a court hearing in Mahe in connection with an attempted murder case involving a CPM worker in Pallur.