KOCHI: A division bench of the Kerala High Court on Tuesday declined to issue an interim stay on the single judge’s order for CBI probe into the murder of two Youth Congress leaders at Periya in Kasaragod.
The court also directed the Kerala Police to produce the case diary on or before November 1. The bench orally observed that a fair investigation is required for a fair trial in the case.
A DIVISION bench of the High Court on Tuesday declined to issue an interim stay on the single judge’s order for a CBI probe into the murder of two Youth Congress leaders at Periya in Kasaragod.
The court also directed the Kerala Police to produce the case diary latest by November 1. It orally observed that a fair investigation is required for a fair trial in the case. The bench comprising Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice C T Ravikumar issued the order on the appeal filed by the state government seeking to quash the single judge’s order. When the case came up for hearing, the bench noted several discrepancies in the chargesheet. The court said the forensic surgeon who did autopsy had opined that none of the injuries could be caused with the GI pipes recovered from the accused persons. The court also asked how a cut injury can be inflicted using GI pipes.
The chargesheet had stated that first accused Peethambaran, second accused Saji C George, fifth accused Gijin and eighth accused Subheesh had clobbered the deceased with GI pipes. The single judge had earlier said the swords and other weapons seized by the police were not shown to the forensic surgeon. Appearing for the government, former solicitor general and Supreme Court advocate Ranjith Kumar submitted the single judge passed the order in contravention of the principles of law that mandates that the power to transfer a case to the CBI is to be exercised in the rarest of rare case. The single judge also conducted a mini trial while issuing the order. The CBI probe was ordered saying there was no proper identification of weapons for which the prosecution had a valid explanation. The case diary was also not examined by the single judge.
While the chargesheet said the accused slashed the victims with iron rods, there was no corresponding injury on the body of the victim. The state argued that this is a matter to be considered by the trial court at the time of framing charges and for this reason the court cannot conclude that the entire investigation is vitiated. The bench said considering the serious nature of the case, an urgent hearing is required and posted the case on Monday. It orally observed that prima facie it cannot be said the single judge conducted a mini trial in the case.
The CBI submitted that it has re-registered the case on October 23 and the next day, it submitted a report before the jurisdictional court at Ernakulam.
