Yet again, the counsel for Manoharan, accused in the Muskan-Rithik siblings’ murder case, has been changed.
The development comes barely ten days after the free legal aid cell appointed a new advocate for the accused after the previous counsel, S Rajendran, resigned. But when Manoharan was produced in the Mahila Court on Monday, he objected to advocate M Kalaiselvan being appointed as his counsel and wanted him to be changed. He did not specify any reason for this. Following this, Judge M P Subramaniam recommended to the District Legal Services Authority to appoint a new advocate for Manoharan. Later in the day, a panel advocate T Vadivel was appointed as Manohran’s counsel by the authority.
Manoharan is the lone surviving accused in the murder of siblings R Muskan Jain (10) and R Rithik Jain (8) in October 2010.
The prime accused, Mohana Krishnan, was shot dead by police when he allegedly attempted to escape. Vadivel will be the fourth advocate appearing for Manohran. Advocate Irudhayaraj, who was first appointed as Manoharan’s counsel by the free legal aid cell, was replaced by advocate Rajendran in April