Why Dashwanth Was Acquitted | RSS Marches, Lathis and Secular Space | South Central 47

In this episode of South Central, hosts first discuss the Supreme Court’s acquittal of Dashwanth, convicted and sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a minor girl in Tamil Nadu. Then they look at the RSS’s centenary year and the outfit’s presence in the southern states.

Published on:

17 Oct 2025, 4:09 pm

In this episode of South Central, hosts Dhanya Rajendran and Anisha Sheth first discuss the Supreme Court’s acquittal of Dashwanth, convicted and sentenced to death for the rape and murder of a minor girl in Tamil Nadu. They are joined by Azeefa Fathima, TNM’s head of Breaking News.

Dhanya recalls that when the case happened in 2017, there was a huge furore in Chennai, and no lawyer wanted to represent Dashwanth.

Azeefa says that the SC cites a violation of fair trial and inconsistencies in the confession statement and evidence in the case, which justifies his acquittal. “One of the facts is that the prosecution’s case rests entirely on circumstantial evidence. When there are no eyewitnesses, each link in the evidence chain must be proved beyond a doubt. But here, the man who said he last saw the child with Dashwanth, Dashwanth’s confession, and the CCTV evidence were not accepted by the SC, citing how these claims did not feature in the initial police complaint,” she says.

She elaborates on how the CCTV footage, which allegedly showed Dashwanth driving by on a bike, with a bag, was not procured by the police and placed on record.

Dhanya says it is absolutely surprising that when there is CCTV footage, the police did not go back and procure it.

“The child’s charred body was found near the road. There was a bag nearby, containing the child’s undergarments, bottles of petrol, etc. The undergarments had semen stains. The SC said that the items said to belong to the child were not identified by her parents. The semen, while it matched with Dashwanth’s blood samples, the samples from him were collected only four months after he was arrested,” Azeefa explains.

“It is a travesty that the entire evidence was discarded by the SC because the samples were collected late. Also, what explains this delay?” Dhanya asks.

Anisha says that this is a serious indication of how shoddy the investigation was. “The onus on the prosecution increases when evidence is circumstantial. They must ensure their evidence is not weak,” she adds.

Sudipto adds that the subjectivity of the justice system leads to grave injury to justice itself, which has many precedents. “While we are not saying Dashwanth is guilty, the inconsistencies in the whole process are scary,” he says.

“Dashwanth’s own father had told TNM that his son committed the crime,” Dhanya points out.

Azeefa says that in the SC, Dashwanth primarily challenged the evidence. “The evidence chain should be a complete picture beyond doubt of the accused’s guilt. This was not achieved by the prosecution, which is why it felt flat. So the SC says there was no basis to assume guilt,” she says.

Anisha says that if the evidence collected itself is shaky, like the CCTV footage in this case, where the person’s face was not clearly visible, the police have an option to exclude that and, in turn, fortify the case with evidence that is more solid.

In the second part of the discussion, the hosts discuss the RSS’s centenary year and the outfit’s presence in the southern states. They are joined by historian and author V Geetha, and TNM’s Executive Editor Sudipto Mondal.

Geetha says that the RSS should not be allowed to host religious festivals in government buildings. “We must understand what conditions have been created over the years that facilitate this,” she says.

Dhanya asks if an RSS march can be compared to a religious event, at a government premise?

“I don’t think there is a comparison. It is important to see how we build our resources in a way where we can differentiate between, say, an LGBTQ march and an RSS event in a public premise,” says Geetha.

Tune in to the discussion here

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Audio Timecodes

00:00:00- Introduction

00:01:35: Diwali Offer

00:02:48 - Headlines

00:12:18 - Dashwanth Case