KOTTAYAM: The Principal Sessions court, Kottayam, which is considering the Kevin murder case, on Wednesday posted the case to August 22 for pronouncing the judgement.
Though the court had scheduled the case for pronouncing the judgement on Wednesday, it postponed the case to get clarity on the prosecution’s argument to consider it as an honour killing case.
When the case was considered on Wednesday morning, Principal Sessions judge C Jayachandran asked the prosecution whether the honour killing argument will be sustained and sought more clarity on the matter. The prosecution, which reiterated its stance, said Kevin was murdered by the accused only because he belonged to a lower caste.
The first accused Syanu Chacko, brother of Kevin’s fiancée Neenu Chacko and their father and fifth accused Chacko John were reluctant to send Neenu with Kevin taking into account the latter’s caste, said the prosecution, which also quoted the statement of Neenu in this regard and pleaded with the court to consider it as a rarest of rare case.
However, the accused’s counsel argued that Chacko had agreed for the marriage of Kevin and Neenu in the compromise talks held at Gandhinagar police station, before Kevin was abducted and hence Chacko and Syanu didn’t consider Kevin’s caste.
After hearing the arguments of both the sides, the court posted the case to August 22.
As per the argument of the prosecution, Kevin P Joseph, son of Joseph Jacob alias Rajan hailing from Platharayil house, Nattasseri near Kottayam, was abducted and murdered by a gang led by Syanu, as the victim belonged to a lower caste.
Two days before the death, Kevin and Neenu had filed a joint application for marriage. While Neenu was sent to a hostel thereafter, Kevin was shifted to the residence of Aneesh Sebastian, one of his relative, at Gandhinagar.
In the early hours of May 27, 2018, Kevin and Aneesh were abducted from here and Aneesh was released later. However, Kevin’s body was recovered from a stream near Chaliyekkara, near Thenmala in the morning.
The special investigation team led by DySP Girish P Sarathy, under the supervision of the then district police chief Hari Sankar, swiftly completed the probe and submitted the charge sheet in the court on August 21, 2018, the 85th day after the crime.
As per the charge sheet of the police, there are 14 accused in the case, including Neenu’s brother Syanu Chacko and father Chacko John, and their relatives and friends.
The court considered the case as an honour killing on the request of the prosecution and completed the trial as per the guidelines of the Supreme Court in honour killing cases. The final trial began on April 24 and the court has examined 113 prosecution witnesses so far.