The Taliparamba police on Thursday registered a case against a lawyer and a merchant at Taliparamba on a complaint by a prosecution witness in the Shukkoor murder case.
The police registered the case on a complaint from P.P. Abu, one of the two witnesses who had contradicted their witness statements in the Shukkoor murder case, allegedly under pressure from the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Abu and Mohammad Sabir were witnesses against CPI(M) district secretary P. Jayarajan and Democratic Youth Federation of India State secretary T.V. Rajesh, MLA, charged with section 118 of IPC (concealing design to commit offence) in the murder case. The police registered the case against advocate Nicholas Joseph and merchant C.P. Saleem on instruction from Superintendent of Police Rahul R. Nair following the complaint lodged by Abu.
According to the complaint, Abu had been threatened by Saleem and forced to enter a car at Taliparamba on January 29.
He was taken to a hotel where the advocate intimidated him and forced him to sign nearly 20 papers. These papers had been used to fabricate his affidavit in another case at a local court at Taliparamba. The police said the case had been registered under IPC sections 365 (abduction) and 195-a (giving false evidence before a court).
The two witnesses’ affidavits contradicting their witness statements in the Shukkoor murder case had been a major embarrassment for the Indian Union Muslim League leadership here. According to the charge sheet, the two witnesses heard a CPI(M) functionary directing some local party workers over the phone to ‘handle’ five youths, including Shukkoor.
