The Crime Branch submitted four progress reports before the Kerala High Court on Wednesday, underlining that the witnesses in the Sampath custodial death case had deposed against some top police officials because of the pressure exerted on them by the CBI investigation officers.
The Crime Branch team probing the Haridath suicide case submitted the reports when the anticipatory bail pleas of suspended CBI officials S Unnikrishnan Nair and K K Rajan, who were arraigned in the case, came up for hearing before the court.
The Crime Branch submitted the reports in response to the earlier court order inquiring from the CB as to when did Haridath understand that the investigation by Rajan and Unnikrishnan into the case was not going in the right direction and about the steps taken by the CBI against the duo.
According to the Crime Branch, the witnesses had given statements due to the pressure exerted by the petitioners, and later it was changed by them to be presented before Haridath.
The CB also produced a counter-affidavit filed by the CBI director in a related case. It had stated that the two officials purposefully deflected the investigation in the Sampath case by roping in innocent persons and prompting them to make allegations against several people without sufficient evidence. The duo did not obey the directions of the supervisory officers in the CBI and they had taken arbitrary decisions in the case, it submitted.
Meanwhile, Nisha, wife of the deceased Haridath, approached the court seeking to implead herself in the anticipatory bail plea. She vehemently opposed the plea and submitted that her husband committed suicide because of the mental pressure exerted by the two officials who were probing the Sampath case initially and certain other persons who had links with the judiciary. The CBI also sought permission to implead in the case. The court posted the hearing of the case to Friday.