THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Judicial First Class Magistrate Court has granted custody of gangster Om Prakash to the city police for one week for further interrogation and evidence collection in connection with the Pattoor gang dispute case. The special team submitted a petition on Friday seeking the police custody of Om Prakash. He was arrested in Goa last week.
The prosecution requested the court that the police take Om Prakash to New Delhi for evidence collection and seize his mobile phone. In addition, Om Prakash needs to be questioned more to find more evidence in connection with the case, as per the prosecution. Prakash was absconding after the police began searching for him in connection with the gang dispute reported at Pattoor in the city in early January this year.
The city police had earlier issued a lookout notice for him. Earlier, the state police were under criticism for having helped Om Prakash go into hiding. Two weeks after the incident, four of Prakash’s accomplices surrendered before the judicial first-class magistrate court at Vanchiyoor in Thiruvananthapuram.
The surrendered suspects are Asif, 35, Arif, 31, Jomon Ramesh, 24, and Ranjith, 21. The crime branch officials also raided Om Prakash’s house at Kowdiar earlier as part of the investigation. The dispute started when the house of brothers Asif and Arif at Mettukada was ambushed by a rival gang led by a gangster, Nithin, on January 7. In retaliation, Prakash and his accomplices hacked four members of the rival gang, including Nithin, using machetes at Pattoor on January 8. Two of Prakash’s aides were nabbed earlier.
Nithin, who headed a criminal gang, was at loggerheads with Om Prakash in business-related tussles. The Mettukada attack case was probed by the Museum police. However, the attack saw a rare resurfacing of the gangster, who had been laying low after being let off by the High Court in the Aprani Krishnakumar murder case.