The police on Thursday sought the permission of the district court to arrest Om Prakash, who is an undertrial prisoner at the Central Prison here, on the charge of lying under oath at a court of law in Kollam district.
A magistrate court in Paravur had in 2010 convicted Om Prakash and three others to two years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs.10,000 each after they were found guilty of assaulting a person (Crime Case 949/2009).
(Om Prakash is currently facing trial on the charge of plotting the highway murder of Kazhakuttom-based “gangster” ‘Aprani’ Krishnakumar as part of an underworld territorial feud in 2007). Recently submitting a certified copy of the magistrate court’s judgment as evidence against Om Prakash in the court of the Second Additional Sessions Judge, K.P. Indira, Special Prosecutor Sajan Prasad deposed that Om Prakash had given a false address in the Kollam court.
He deposed that Om Prakash had given a sworn statement that he was the son of Bhaskaran Nair, Thovalootu Veedu, Vellikulam, Menamkulam, Kazhakuttom. Om Prakash had also used the same address to appeal against his conviction, he stated. The prosecutor told the court that Om Prakash was the son of Kuttappan of TC 44/190, O. K. Nivas, near Fisheries School, Valiathura and the address he gave in the Kollam court was fictitious.
Additional Director General of Police, South Zone, A. Hemachandran, verified the prosecutor’s statement and ordered the Paravur police on January 9 to register a case of perjury and “cheating by personation” respectively under Section 199 and 419 of the Indian Penal Code (Crime number 66/2013) against Om Prakash.
Earlier, the police had told the court that Om Prakash had fled the country after Krishnakumar’s murder using his passport, which he had renewed by allegedly suppressing the fact that there were crime cases pending against him in various courts in the State. On the basis of a report filed by Deputy Superintendent of Police R. Mahesh, the investigating officer in the case, the State police suspended two of its Intelligence wing officials who had endorsed Om Prakash’s claim for passport renewal. Subsequently, they booked him on the charge of violating Section 12 (b) of the Passport Act.
