The bail applications moved on behalf of two of the key accused in the Shukkoor murder case were rejected by the First Class Judicial Magistrate Court - 1 in Kannur on Friday.
The bail applications were moved on behalf of Democratic Youth Federation of India Pappinissery block joint secretary P. Ganeshan, and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) local secretary at Ariyil U.V. Venu. According to the charge sheet filed by the special investigation team before the court on August 23, P. Ganeshan was among first three accused in the case who had stabbed Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) activists Ariyil Shukkoor and Zakaria at Keezhara on February 20 last and Venu the key conspirator who plotted the attack.
When the bail application was taken up for hearing, counsel of the applicants did not press them. So the applications were rejected by magistrate C. Mujeeb Rahiman. The bail applications were moved under section 167(2) of Code of Criminal Procedure Code which mandates the grant of bail to an accused if the charge sheet is not filed within 90 days of his or her arrest.
As the charge sheet was filed by the investigating officer and Valapattanam Circle Inspector U. Preman on August 24, the two accused have lost the right for the statutory bail under the section. Special Prosecutor C.K. Sreedharan, said the applicants lost the right for bail as the charge sheet had already been filed.
The charge sheet had been filed hurriedly on Thursday to ensure that the two key accused were not granted bail. As per the earlier plan, the investigators were scheduled to submit the charge sheet on August 25.
CPI(M) demands apology:
CPI(M) leader M.V. Jayarajan said here on Friday that the charge sheet has proved as false the allegation that the murder of Shukkoor had been executed by a 'party court' and that the photos of Shukkoor and others taken on mobile phones had been sent as multi-media messages for their verification. Alleging that the charges had been levelled to tarnish the CPI(M) ahead of the Piravom byelection, he said that the Chief Minister's Office and a section of the media had been involved in the 'conspiracy'to portray the party as a party of killers.
The fabricated stories on the crime could not have been circulated without the collusion of the ruling government leadership and top police officials, he said adding that a section of the media was continuing to tell lies. Mr. Jayarajan said that the government and the police surrendered before the 'League' extremists in handling the investigation.
