KOZHIKODE: The prosecution in the Marad case failed to prove that the explosives recovered from the Marad Juma Masijd were brought by the accused.
In the judgement pronounced on December 27, the Special Judge Babu Mathew P Joseph said "evidence defenitely shows that country bombs made in Pepsi tins were seized from Juma Masjid." He wondered whether the seizure itself was sufficient for finding that the accused had brought the bombs. The prosecution case was that the fourth accused Marzook had collected explosives and nails and manufactured bombs in fishing boats. These were brought to Marad in fishing boats at about 5 am, during the last week of February 2003. But the prosecution could not prove this argument beyond doubt. There were confusion in the name of the boats in which the bombs were allegedly brought to Marad. The judge said it was unsafe to rely on the prosecution witness Devadasan who claimed that he had seen bombs in bucket being brought in from the sea.
Prosecution also failed to ascertain as to who collected the samples of the explosives which were sent for forensic examination.
Prosecution witness and forensic expert Annamma John and the DySP K Sankaranarayanan had told the court that they had not collected the samples. Prosecution had no answer to the question as to who collected the samples.
Moreover, "the report of the forensic examination shows that the explosive substances could not be detected in these items." The judge said the examination and collection of samples from boats had not proved that the accused had anything to do with the offence.
Prosecution witnesses said they had seen swords being brought into Marad in a jeep. But they did not inform the authorities at that time. The judge said it was unsafe to rely on these witnesses.
The driver of the vehicle could not identify the fifth and the sixth accused who allegedly brought swords from Beypore to Marad Juma Masjid.
Prosecution also argued that the accused had made arrangements to donate blood in Medical College in the event any Muslims getting injured in the incident. A taxi was seized by the police which carried persons identified for blood donation. But the judge said there are contradictions in the statements of police officers in this regard.
Another contention of the prosecution was that the day of the massacre was circled in red colours in the two calendars seized from the Juma Masjid. The judge said it was insufficient to prove the conspiracy.
