The Hindu : Kerala News : Kerala High Court seeks affidavit on evidence in Abhaya case

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Kerala High Court seeks affidavit on evidence in Abhaya case

Petition was filed by the three accused

Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Wednesday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to file an affidavit/statement specifying the material available against the three accused in connection with the Sister Abhaya murder case.

Justice R. Basant directed the CBI to file it by 3 p.m. on November 27. The affidavit/statement should specify the material available against the accused till November 19, the day when the accused were produced before the Ernakulam Chief Judicial Magistrate Court and also the material collected thereafter.

The court gave the directive when petitions filed by Fr. Thomas Kottur, Fr. Jose Poothrikkayil and Sister Sephy challenging the order of the Ernakulam Chief Judicial Magistrate’s order remanding them in CBI custody came up for hearing.

Special prosecutor for the CBI M.V.S. Nampoothiri submitted that it was clearly stated in the remand report as well as in the petition seeking the custody of the accused that there was sufficient scientific and oral evidence to connect the arrested with the crime. The case diary was also produced before the magistrate court that was monitoring the investigation of the case.

The CBI submitted that in view of the sensitive nature of the case, a Xerox copy of the case diary was not attached along with the remand report though the case diary was produced.

So, the CBI had fully complied with the statutory requirements. As the case diary was made available, the copy of the entries in the diary was not separately produced. In fact, the magistrate had been apprised of the grounds for remanding the accused in custody for 14 days. The accused contended that the petition seeking their custody had not disclosed or narrated the acts of the accused and the evidence so far collected against them.

The CBI was legally bound to relate briefly the prior history of the investigation and the likelihood of further clues which the CBI expected to derive from the accused. The CBI’s petition violated the statutory requirements.

The accused also pointed out that the CBI had not produced any arrest memo before the court.

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