Union Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahmed and Industries Minister P. K. Kunhalikutty on Thursday told a court here that the criminal revision petition seeking permission to investigate them in connection with the death of Abbas Sait, private secretary to Mr. Kunhalikutty, was to gain cheap publicity at the expense of their reputation and public stature.
Their counsel, Abdul Karim, produced before the Principal Sessions Judge B. Sudheendra Kumar, medical records provided by Abbas’s family to “set the record straight” and save his clients and the deceased man’s relatives from the “uncharitable and heinous” allegations made against them in a court of law.
The counsel argued that Abbas’s death was a natural one. Abbas was diabetic since 1988. The 63-year-old man had survived a heart attack in 2006.
He underwent a coronary artery by-pass surgery in 2007 and was on medication for heart disease ever since. Abbas also suffered from a pelvic injury.
On 3/2/2013, he complained of dizziness and was admitted to a hospital. Doctors diagnosed cerebral oedema and operated on him.
However, the emergency neurosurgery did not help staunch the massive brain haemorrhage Abbas had suffered. The bleeding was also probably and secondarily due to the medicines he was taking for heart disease. He died at the hospital on February 5. The doctors recorded the cause of death as irreversible brain stem dysfunction.
The counsel told the court that the Opposition Leader V. S. Achuthanandan had on February 6 cast aspersions on the circumstances of Abbas’s death with scant regard for the welfare of the man’s family.
The complainant had raised the allegations against his clients without verifying facts. He has not submitted any evidence to back his allegations in court. The counsel alleged that the complainant was a mere name lender acting on behest of some other person inimical to his clients.
Quoting a news report, he said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had clarified in the media that Abbas Sait did not figure in the agency’s investigation against Abdul Rasheed, former head of the Kozhikode Regional Passport office.
The complainant’s contention was that Mr. Achuthanandan had ‘disclosed conspiracies’ regarding political intervention to appoint Mr. Abdul Rasheed as passport officer in Malappuram to allegedly facilitate the human trafficking of minor girls to foreign countries. Mr. Rasheed was the gunman of Mr. Kunhalikutty prior to his appointment as passport officer.
The petitioner said Mr. Rasheed had issued passports to underage girls by manipulating their age on records. Girls aged 14 and 15 were sent to the Gulf on various pretexts stating that they were professionals aged 30 and 35. The CBI had registered a case against Mr. Rasheed and Abbas, who was private secretary to Mr. Kunhalikutty, feared that he would be questioned in connection with the case.
The complainant had told the court that Mr. Achuthanandan had alleged that something Abbas consumed had to do with his death. The petitioner told the court that it was pertinent to note that the body of Abbas was not subjected to post-mortem examination and no forensic chemical examination was done to detect or rule out the presence of toxic or poisonous substances in his body.
Mr. Abdul Karim told the court that the petitioner had even distorted the statement made by the Opposition Leader to suit his ends. He pleaded the court to dismiss the revision petitions filed by the complainant against his clients.
