A three-judge bench of India’s Supreme Court on May 20 set aside the conviction of a Sri Lankan national who had been sentenced to five years under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, ruling he was wrongly identified as an absconding suspect linked to an alleged LTTE revival plot.
Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and Vijay Bishnoi found that prosecutors failed to prove Ranjan was the same person as co-accused Sri, who remained at large. The court noted no test identification parade was conducted and that witness statements identifying Ranjan as Sri surfaced only after his 2021 arrest.
Ranjan, a refugee living in Tamil Nadu, had been convicted by a trial court in July 2024 and the Madras High Court upheld the sentence in April 2025. The bench said belated and improved testimony cast serious doubt on the investigation by Tamil Nadu’s Q Branch.
The court ordered his immediate release from a special camp in Trichy and allowed him to pursue relocation to Switzerland, where his wife and son reside.
The Tamil Nadu case originated from a 2015 Q Branch investigation into an alleged conspiracy to revive the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The Supreme Court said an absconding accused in a serious UAPA matter would be unlikely to apply for foreign visas under his own identity, further undermining the prosecution theory.
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Sources:
https://www.livelaw.in/supreme-court