KOCHI: Despite the CPM claiming that the CBI probe hasn’t revealed anything new that the crime branch (CB) did not uncover when it first probed the Periya twin murder case, the CBI court ruling convicting 14 party activists for the murder of two Youth Congress workers specifies that statements from several key witnesses were not fully recorded by the state investigating agency. The court also took note of the CBI's argument that some political leaders were deliberately omitted from the case.
According to the judgment, statements from several crucial witnesses, including M.K. Krishnan, Sarath Lal’s uncle Damodaran, ASI Manoj of Bekkal police station, Sarath Lal’s sister Amritha, district president of the Youth Congress Pradeep Kumar, and Anoop were not fully recorded by the CB.
Krishnan, who saw three persons running from the crime scene where Sarath Lal was found lying injured on February 17, 2019, identified two of the three: first-accused A. Peethambaran and fifth-accused Gijin. Though he had narrated this to the CB, it was only later, when his original statement was read to him by a CBI official, that he realized certain portions of his oral statement had not been recorded by the CB.
Damodaran made a similar submission before the court. It was to Damodaran that Sarath Lal revealed Gijin’s involvement just before he died while being taken to the hospital. ASI Manoj apprehended second-accused Saji George before former Udma MLA P.V. Kunhiraman and three others helped him evade custody. Manoj narrated the entire sequence of events at Bekkal police station to a CB officer. During cross-examination, he also stated that a portion of his statement was recorded for reasons unknown to him.
When the CBI pointed this out during the trial, the court said, “The prosecution has a clear explanation regarding the mischief played by the crime branch while conducting the investigation and recording the previous statements of witnesses. This court cannot overlook this, while appreciating the evidence on record.
is a well-settled proposition that mere flaws in the investigation shall not give room to the real culprit to go scot-free unless those flaws are material that will go to the root of the case,” it said.
CBI vehemently argued that CB had played foul in omitting Kunhiraman and other political leaders from the initial chargesheet. According to the central agency, CB effaced the entire rescue episode from their story while filing the final report to save some political leaders, including the former MLA. On this, the court observed that the mere flaw in the investigation conducted by CB shall not be a shelter to the accused who forcibly rescued second-accused Saji George from police custody.
“This is the case where the crime branch has swallowed this part of the investigation while filing the final report, though ASI Manoj and other officers gave evidence to convince this court that the rescue operation had taken place,” the court observed.
KEY OBSERVATIONS
The CBI court ruling specifies that statements of several crucial witnesses were not fully recorded by the state investigating agency
The court also took note of the CBI argument that some political leaders were deliberately omitted from the case. According to CBI,
the Crime Branch effaced the entire rescue episode from their story while filing the final report to save some of the political leaders including former MLA
The court observed that the mere flaw in the probe conducted by
CB shall not be a shelter to the accused who forcibly rescued second-accused Saji George from police custody
