KOCHI: As part of committal proceedings, the sensational Sampath custodial murder case was transferred from Ernakulam chief judicial magistrate court to the CBI court in Kochi. CBI special court -II is now tasked with indicting the accused and conducting the trial.
Recently, files including charge sheets of the case, were transferred from the chief judicial magistrate court to the CBI court. After verifying the records, the CBI court will send notice to the accused persons - mostly police officers - for their presence. “It may take more time to frame charges and conduct trial in the case. Now, the proceedings in the case will be handled by the CBI court,” a CBI officer said.
CBI filed two charge sheets in the case against DySP C K Ramachandran Nair, Sub-Inspectors T U Unnikrishnan and Ramesh; Civil Police Officers Johnson Lobo, T J Brijith, Abdul Rasheed, Madhavan K, S Shilan and Shyama Prasad; ASI K Ramachandran, Circle Inspector Vipindas and Nair’s friend Binu Ittoop.
The CBI excluded 17 persons from the charge sheet, including two IPS officers, two DySPs, two ASIs, two head constables and four police constables. Sheela Jayakrishnan of Puthur was stabbed to death at her house on March 23, 2010. As part of the probe, the police arrested Sampath from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu on March 29. He was taken to Riverside Cottage at Malampuzha where he was allegedly tortured. After his death, the accused persons changed the details of the arrest record. As per the CBI charge sheet, Sampath died due to internal bleeding in the tissue.