The Special Additional District Sessions Court (Marad cases) here on Wednesday acquitted six persons involved in a case of attempting to murder three brothers during the communal riots at the coastal village of Marad in January 2002.
Delivering the judgment, special court judge K.P. Prasannakumari exonerated Seemamudakathu Noushad; Kinattindakathu Shamsu; Puthanpurayil Mubarak; Nalukudiparambu Manaf; Seemamudakathu Latheef and Kinnattindakathu Ismail of all the charges in the case of trying to kill Thekkethodi Preju, Pradeepan and Sunil at 8 p.m. on January 3, 2002.
The court said the prosecution failed to prove the charges against the accused. The Beypore police had charged the accused with Section 307 (attempt to murder); Section 153-A (promoting enmity between groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence and language and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony); Section 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt); and Section 450 (house trespass in order to commit offence punishable with imprisonment for life) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Two cases
The court found that the police had also registered two cases against one of the victims, Preju, for his involvement in the murder of Yunus as well as setting ablaze a house. Both these incidents had taken place at around 8 p.m. on the same day.
Another document showed that Preju had reached Kozhikode Medical College Hospital for treatment at 7.30 p.m. thus weakening the prosecution case.
P.K. Varghese and M.T. Shamir appeared for the accused and special prosecutor P.D. Ravi for the prosecution.
The January 2002 riots had claimed the lives of five persons at the coastal area of Marad. Property worth crores of rupees was destroyed during the riots on January 3 and 4. The special court had already delivered the verdict in more than 25 cases, including three murders.
