The prosecution in the T.P. Chandrasekharan murder case on Wednesday ripped apart the argument of the defence counsels that the police had taken into custody the key accused from Kannur district several days prior to their recorded arrest.
This was witnessed during the re-examination of A.P. Shoukathali, Deputy Superintendent of Police (Dy. SP), Crime Branch, who was a member of the special police team that probed the murder of the Revolutionary Marxist Party leader at Onchiyam on May 4, 2012.
The officer was deposing before the R. Narayana Pisharadi, judge, Special Additional District and Sessions Court (Marad cases). C.K. Sreedharan, special public prosecutor, re-examined him.
In his cross examination, the defence counsels, B. Raman Pillai, M. Ashokan, and K. Gopalakrishna Kurup, suggested that the police had taken into custody five persons, including Sunil Kumar aka Kodi Suni ( third accused) , Manoj Kumar aka Kirmani Manoj (second accused), and Mohammed Shafi (fifth accused) three to four days prior to the date of alleged arrest on June 14, 2012. The accused had been kept in wrongful confinement and the police had tortured them in custody, they argued.
However, during re-examination, Mr. Shoukathali denied the allegations and stated that the accused had not made any complaint of ill- treatment when they had been produced before the Vadakara Judicial First Class Magistrate’s Court on June 14, 2012. The Magistrate had also made an entry in the remand report in this regard.
Besides, the officer pointed out that Mohammed Shafi had given a written complaint to the State Human Rights Commission on July 9, 2012 stating that he was allegedly tortured by the investigators at the special camp office at Vadakara. In this complaint he had mentioned that the police had arrested the accused from Mudakozhi on June 14, 2012. Then the State Police Chief had sought a report from the Investigating Officer pertaining to the allegation.
Last week, Mr. Shoukathali testified before the trial court that a police team had arrested five accused from a makeshift tent at Peringanammala at Mudakozhi near Iritty at dawn on June 14, 2012. He said that P. Mohanan (13th accused), member of Kozhikode district secretariat of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI-M], had to be taken into custody after intercepting his vehicle at Koyilandy.
