KOCHI: Eleven years after the murder of liquor baron Mithila Mohan, which shocked the city, the High Court on Thursday ordered a CBI probe into the case. The court held that the CBI should probe the case as expeditiously as possible because the incident happened 11 years ago. The court directed the state government to provide sufficient manpower and infrastructure for the effective investigation in the case. The court issued the order taking into account the submission of the prosecution that the accused persons belonged to Sri Lanka.
The investigation team also informed the court that it suspected the involvement of the LTTE in the case. According to the Crime Branch, accused Mathivanan and Uppali are from Sri Lanka and suspected that they had links with the LTTE. According to the Crime Branch, third accused Mathivanan had told first accused Santhosh Kumar that he and Uppali belonged to Vedaranyam lighthouse at Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu.
The court recorded the statement of the Crime Branch stating that the accused is from Sri Lanka. The order was issued on a petition filed by M Manesh, son of Mohan, seeking a CBI probe into the case. He submitted that even after 11 years, the investigation into the grave crime has reached nowhere. It was totally unclear from the records as to what is the present state of affairs and what are the steps taken by the investigating agency to identify and book the real culprits.