The routine transfer of a district judge rarely occupies space in the media.
But when S. Krishnakumar, Special Additional Sessions Judge (Marad cases), bids adieu to Kozhikode after his three-year tenure, he must be contented not just for the speedy disposal of criminal cases but also his punchy judgments. He disposed of 225 session cases and 525 criminal appeals after taking charge on May 21, 2014.
Though the special court was set up for trial of offences in the Marad case, it has been conducting trials in several cases of district and State-wide importance. Mr. Krishnakumar has been appointed Additional Sessions Judge in Kollam.
One of his poignant verdicts was the acquittal of the lone accused, Jabbar aka Jayesh aka Babu, in the murder of Sundariamma, an aged woman, at Vattakkinar. The judge had pulled up the Crime Branch DySP and the Circle Inspector for framing an innocent person in a serious offence. He also directed the authorities to take disciplinary action against the police officers and asked the State government to pay ₹1 lakh to Jabbar as compensation.
Mr. Krishnakumar also had the privilege of conducting the trial in the first case of moral policing in the State. The case pertained to a 15-member vigilante group beating up Shaheed Bava with sticks and iron rods, after tying his hands and legs to an electric post for having an affair with a married woman at Kodiyathur. The nine accused were awarded life imprisonment in the case.
The exoneration of all the 17 accused in the murder of Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) activist C.K. Shibin of Nadapuram brought out the flaws in police investigation and the prosecution case. The court said that the FIR had been deliberately delayed after “discussions and deliberations” with party leaders, and that the witnesses had parroted versions as part of a conspiracy.
Another major case that Mr. Krishnakumar tried was the murder of the wife and father of a hotel owner at Balussery. The investigation revealed that a migrant employee, Naveen Vaidyanath Yadav, had plotted with the woman to eliminate her father-in-law for ₹3 lakh. And later he killed her also when she refused to pay the balance sum.
