After an exhausting legal battle that stretched over eleven long years, retired professor Anand Vishwanath has finally found justice. The Additional Sessions Court in Thodupuzha has acquitted him of all charges of sexual harassment that were levelled by students belonging to the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), the student wing of the CPI(M).

The story began in 2014, when Professor Vishwanath was serving as the Head of the Department of Economics at Government College, Munnar in Idukki district. During a postgraduate examination, he caught four girl students using unauthorized notes. He confiscated the manuscripts and handed them over to the invigilator on duty. That one act of duty marked the beginning of his ordeal.

Soon after, the four students filed a joint complaint before the Education Minister and the State Women’s Commission, accusing him of sexual harassment in the examination hall on multiple occasions between August and September of that year. An internal inquiry was ordered, and a police case was filed. Vishwanath was later chargesheeted in four separate cases.

The matter went to trial, and in 2021, the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court at Devikulam sentenced him to three years’ imprisonment in two of the cases, while acquitting him in the other two. Unwilling to accept this verdict, the professor appealed to the Additional Sessions Court, Thodupuzha, which has now overturned the convictions in their entirety.

Defending him in court, advocate S. Ashokan highlighted glaring flaws in the prosecution’s case. He pointed out that the prosecution had failed to present an independent witness and, significantly, the invigilator—who could have provided crucial testimony—was never examined. He further argued: “In all the cases, the same girls were the witnesses. If one of the girls is a victim in a case, the other three were arraigned as witnesses in that case. In the other three cases, the same girls were listed in different roles as victims and as witnesses. The court has found that the cases were politically motivated.”

Judge Laijumol Sherif, while setting aside the conviction, agreed with these arguments. The court observed that the testimonies of the four students were riddled with contradictions, omissions, and embellishments, rendering the entire case improbable. The judgment noted that there was no independent evidence to corroborate the accusations. The order clearly stated: “Therefore, the evidence brought on record through the complainants is not sufficient to prove the occurrence, but is more than enough to prove that the professor was falsely implicated in the crime.”

Going further, the court revealed that the four complainants never faced any disciplinary action for their malpractice. Instead, it concluded that a deliberate plan was hatched at the CPIM party office to falsely trap Professor Vishwanath. The judge recorded in the order: “…No action was taken on the malpractice of the four students, and instead there occurred a conspiracy at the party office of the CPIM to rope in the professor…”

This ruling has finally ended more than a decade of humiliation and struggle for Professor Anand Vishwanath, marking an important case that raises questions about political influence in student organizations and the misuse of false allegations.