Santhosh Kumar, arrested in the sensational Mithila Mohan murder case was granted bail by the Ernakulam Judicial First Class Magistrate-II on Monday.
The court allowed his bail after Crime Branch failed to file chargesheet even after 90 days of his arrest.
The court allotted bail on conditions that he should not leave the state, should not attempt to tamper the evidence or influence the witness.
Santhosh Kumar alias Kannan, 47 has also been asked to appear before the investigation officer every Sunday.
The Crime Branch, had in a petition filed before the High Court earlier, asked for more time to complete the investigation. A case has been registered against Santhosh for murder and criminal conspiracy.
The Crime Branch yet to trace the gangster who shot Mithila Mohan at his residence in Vennala on 5 April, 2006.
During the interrogation, Santhosh named Mathivanan and Uppali as the person hired for killing Mohan.
However, Crime Branch in their investigation came to know these were fake names. Crime Branch team is still camping at Tamil Nadu to trace the shooters who were working for Dindigul Pandian. Pandian was killed in an encounter with the Tamil Nadu police in Chennai.
Mithila Mohan, a watch mechanic who rose to become a liquor baron, was shot dead by unidentified persons at point blank range. Santhosh was the first partner of Mithila Mohan in illicit spirit business.
Few years later, Santhosh started running his own business. Annoyed by this Mohan’s men stole his truck and demanded a payment of Rs 3 lakh from him.
Mohan’s men s also leaked information about his attempt to smuggle spirit via Palakkad.
After suffering heavy losses in the business, Santhosh allgedly decided to eliminate Mohan and hired sharp shooters working for Dindigul Pandian.