Abhimanyu murder case: Kerala Court appoints inquiry officer to probe missing documents
KOCHI: The Ernakulam District Principal Session Court on Monday appointed an inquiry officer to conduct an administrative-level probe into the missing of 11 crucial documents in the Abhimanyu murder case. Observing that the documents have been missing from the court since January 2019, District Principal Sessions Judge Honey M Varghese, however, said such incidents were “not unusual”.
The missing documents include the chargesheet, postmortem report, case particulars with a covering letter, an attested copy of the register of property found in prison search, police intimation to an accused person named Arjun, casualty register and hospital card of another accused Vineeth, the wound certificate of Rahul K, 15 customer application forms submitted to procure SIM cards, a site plan, a certificate issued from Maharaja’s College and a 161 CrPC statement by the accused persons during the interrogation.
The court, while considering the case on Monday, observed, “Missing documents are regular at courts. There have been instances where the lost documents were found later. There is nothing unusual about the missing of documents in this case.”
Regarding the inquiry officer, the judge did not disclose any details saying that it is an administrative procedure, not a judicial one. However, it is learned that a judge is conducting the inquiry into the incident.
Judge Honey was apprised of the missing document issue on September 2023. As per procedure, she reported it to the Kerala High Court which directed her to reconstruct the files.
The case was considered Monday to hear the defence counsel’s objections, if any, regarding the authenticity of the reconstructed documents. However, the counsel representing the eight accused persons, who are members of the student political organisation Campus Front, filed an objection over the reconstruction of missing documents. The counsel for the third accused sought more time for filing an objection.