KOCHI: While languishing in prison, it was the accusation of ‘patricide’ that haunted B W Jyothikumar more than the mental agony. And as he walks out after spending 16 years in prison, he will find the social stigma hard to ignore. It was the murder of his father, Wilson, in 2004, that altered Jyothikumar’s destiny.
Over the last 19 years, he lost everything — his savings, including 32 cents of land, family life and reputation. Yet the Kanjiramkulam, Thiruvananthapuram, native is still hopeful that the real culprits will be brought to justice. In a recent verdict, the High Court held that Jyothikumar was a victim of a cooked-up story by different agencies, including the CBI, and acquitted him.
“In spite of three agencies — police, crime branch and CBI—conducting the investigation, they have been unable to give a definite answer to the question of whodunit. “Even the CBI seems to have been groping in the dark with no definite leads or clues,” said the division bench comprising Justice P B Suresh Kumar and Justice C S Sudha.
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All these factors were in play when local police under the then circle inspector of Poovar, who was the first investigation officer, and then DySP of Neyyattinkara, allegedly terrorised people of the locality in an attempt to concoct a false case. The bench issued the order on an appeal filed by Jyothikumar through advocate Shajin S Hameed. “My mother and I have been fighting a legal battle for the past 19 years to trace the killers of my father. I was arrested in 2007 and sentenced to life imprisonment. I spent around 10 years in prison. During the jail term, I was also released on bail and given parole.
Those who were arrested earlier are behind the murder of my father. They had help. I suspect that the dispute over a financial deal led to the murder,” said Jyothikumar. He was 39 years old at the time of his arrest. While out on bail, he obtained a temporary job as a conductor with KSRTC. “But I was ousted from the job following a complaint filed by the person who was arrested earlier,” he said. On February 16, 2004, Wilson was found dead with multiple stab injuries near the residence of Wilfred, who was later arrested along with his son Ronald.
The CBI found that Jyothikumar had issued a false statement and fake evidence to divert the case and arrived at the conclusion that he stabbed his father and placed the body near the house of Wilfred to mislead police. According to the central investigative agency, Jyothikumar had given the statement that before his death, Wilson had named Wilfred and Ronald as his assailants. On April 14, 2007, CBI arrested Jyothikumar, and a CBI court went on to acquit Wilfred and Ronald. According to the CBI, Jyothikumar murdered his father with a knife due to ill feelings he harboured towards him. “Suspicion, however grave, is not sufficient to find the accused guilty of the offences alleged against him.
The links in the chain of circumstances leading to the hypothesis that it is the accused and no one else who has committed the crime has not been established. The chain of evidence is not complete as to leave any reasonable ground for the conclusion consistent with the innocence of the accused and show that in all human probability, the act must have been done by the accused and the accused alone,” said the HC bench. It directed the state police chief to look into the matter and take necessary action against the then-investigating officer. “We are quite unhappy with the manner in which the CBI has also conducted the investigation in this case. There are many loose ends in the prosecution story. The CBI seems to have left it to the court to assume many things and arrive at a decision,” the bench said.