New Delhi: The Supreme Court has upheld the decision of the Jharkhand High Court to quash the death sentence of a tribal artist who used songs and street plays to awaken people of the eastern Indian state.

The Jharkhand government had appealed against the High Court’s December 2011 order setting free Jitan Marandi, who was among 20 people charged in a massacre case.

A lower court where the case was tried took the police version and passed a verdict ‘death by hanging.’

“Truth finally prevails,” wrote Jesuit social activist Father Stan Swamy on his Facebook page on October 15, a day after the apex court gave its verdict. “It is a victory of truth over untruth and we all rejoice to see our Jitan free to be with his family and continue his commitment for justice, truth,” added the priest, who has known Marandi for years.

Marandi, a Santal from the rural Giridih district of Jharkhand, had become “a thorn in the flesh of local administration and police” as people began demanding their rights.

Marandi and 19 others were accused of murdering 20 people, including the son of a former state chief minister, on October 26, 2007 at Chilkari. One of the accused had the name Jitan Marandi.

The police, instead of catching the actual culprit, arrested the artist-activist in 2008. They “charge-sheeted him for multiple murder and of being a Maoist,” Father Swamy explained.

After the sentence, Marandi was locked up in a 10’ by 10’ iron-bar cell.

His partner-in-life Aparna, their 3-year-old son Alok, and several colleagues appealed against the death sentence in the High Court. A senior lawyer, who charged no fees for the case, could prove that Marandi had nothing to do with the murder.

Marandi, one of the secretaries of Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners, was released from Birsa jail in Hotwar in Ranchi on March 28, 2013.

Although the Jharkhand High Court had acquitted Marandi in 2011, he had to remain in jail for two more years as the Jharkhand government invoked the Jharkhand Crime Control Act (2002) against him.

Sushanto Mukherjee of the Marxist Coordination Committee central committee, who had received Marandi after his release from Birsa jail, said the artist was falsely accused because he had taken part in resistance movements in Jharkhand.

“He had to stay in jail for five years because authorities put these politically motivated cases against him. He would have got released even sooner but he chose to not appeal against the Jharkhand government’s order against him which remained in force for two years,” he added.

He had joined movements against forcible land acquisitions in Jharkhand.

He was arrested while he was returning from a rally organized by the Visthapan Virodhi Jan Vikash Andolan (people’s movement against displacement), a year after the 20 people were killed.

The police allegedly brought false witnesses during the trial that led to Marandi’s death-sentence.

Activists view the case as part of a larger pattern of victimization of the cultural political activists as well as those tribal voices, who resist various injustices being inflicted by the state on hapless people.