Even as the Crime Branch on Tuesday sought three month’s time from the Kerala High Court to complete probe into the murder of city-based liquor baron V.A. Mohanan alias Mithila Mohan, the State government told the court that it had no objection to the case being transferred to the CBI.
The crime branch and the State government made the submissions when a writ petition seeking a CBI probe into the murder came for hearing before Justice C.T. Ravikumar. The court then asked the government pleader to file a statement containing these submissions.
The petition was filed by Mohan’s son M. Mahesh.
The case was transferred to the Crime Branch in 2006. The crime branch said 200 witnesses were questioned.
Mohan was murdered at his residence in Palarivattom by unidentified persons on April 5, 2006, a day before the India-England one-day international cricket match at the Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium.
According to the petitioner, his father was murdered by a professional killer. Though there were indications of the involvement of several influential persons in the case, the police had not done anything to arrest them, the petitioner said.
He said a thorough investigation into the activities of Mohan’s business rivals would bring out the truth.
The case was handed over to the Crime Branch on June 17, 2006. The Crime Branch had suspected business rivalry to be the motive behind the murder and confirmed that the deceased was shot by a 0.32 revolver.
According to the petitioner, his mother and sisters-in-law were present, along with his father, in the house at the time of the incident. Late in the evening on April 6, 2006, his sister-in-law, Uma, heard someone calling out his father’s name and knocking on the door.
When his father opened the door, he was shot on the chest and abdomen by unidentified persons.
When the petitioner was convinced of the inability of the CB-CID to proceed with the investigation, he approached the High Court. It ordered the State to constitute a special wing to probe the case if necessary and adopt scientific methods permitted by law.
