The Ernakulam Chief Judicial Magistrate on Tuesday directed the CBI to reinvestigate the involvement of 17 persons, including IPS officers Muhammad Yasin and Vijay Sakhare, in the Sampath murder case.
Rejecting the CBI report in the case, the CJM court directed the CBI to come up with a “meaningful” report. The magistrate was considering the supplementary chargesheet in the case and a petition filed by Sampath’s brother Murukesan against the report, which dropped charges against 17 police officers, who were first arraigned as accused in the case.
Chief Judicial Magistrate E C Harigovindan ordered that “the referred report or supplementary report dropping further proceedings against 17 persons, including Muhammad Yasin and Vijay Sakhare, is hereby returned, directing the CBI to further investigate by keeping in mind various observations made by the court and file a meaningful report”.
On the CBI report, the CJM observed that in seven sections, the CBI probe was incomplete and unsatisfactory.
“The police action of taking Sampath, Manikandan and Kanakaraj to Riverside Cottage instead of police station was suspicious. From the statement given by Manikanadan and Kanakaraj, it is clear that Yasin was present at the cottage and they have identified him from the photograph. The CBI has to consider the submission by these witnesses,” the magistrate said.
The court observed that from the postmortem report it was clear that the death occurred after Sampath was hit by a ‘three-point projected portion of the baton’ used by IPS officers. However, the investigation officer had not seized the cane nor got it checked by experts.
The court dismissed the CBI version that as per mobile phonecall details, it is impossible for ADGP Muhammad Yasin, then Thrissur IG, to reach Riverside Cottage.
It observed that the CBI should take into account the mental condition of witnesses Kankaraj and Manikandan.
The magistrate stated that the CBI had not conducted detailed investigation on eight telephone calls made by Yasin to Satheesh, an IAS officer and relative of Sheela, suspected to be murdered by Sampath.