COIMBATORE: The Tamil Nadu ‘Q’ branch police on Thursday filed a petition in the city court seeking permission to investigate the signature and handwriting in the documents allegedly seized from the five Maoists arrested from the outskirts of the city in May.
The five, R Roopesh, his wife Shyna, J Anoop, C Kannan and C Veeramani, were arrested by the ‘Q’ branch police from a bakery in Karumathampatty on May 4.
The case came up for hearing in the court of the principal district judge (in-charge) Sakthivel, on Thursday. Three of the five Maoists, Shyna, Anoop and Veeramani were produced before the judge.
Roopesh is currently in custody of Ayyanur police in Kannanur district in Kerala, and Kannan is under custody of Aliyar police. The prosecution explained the reason for not producing Roopesh and Kannan before the judge.
Following this, the judge further postponed hearing of the case to July 8, and ordered the police to produce all five Maoists in court. While Shyna was taken to Kerala in connection with another case, the other two were lodged at the Coimbatore Central Prison.
Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu ‘Q’ branch police submitted two petitions in the court under Section 311(A) (power of Magistrate to order a person to give specimen signature or handwriting) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). They requested permission to investigate and check whether the signature and handwriting present in the documents seized from the alleged Maoists, were actually theirs.
But, defense lawyers strongly objected to this, and sought time to present their side of argument.
While at court, Veeramani alleged that the Kerala police had tortured him and had taken many photographs of him. He expressed fear that false cases could be foisted against him. On the direction of the judge, Veeramani submitted a petition in the court on the matter.