The Ramankary First Class Judicial Magistrate, Subitha Chirakkal, on Monday rejected a counter petition filed by M.G. George Muthoot requesting that he be made an additional respondent in the case connected to his son Paul Muthoot George’s murder.
Mr. George had filed the counter petition on Friday, following a petition for statutory bail filed by seven of the accused in the case.
The seven, including first accused Jayachandran, second accused Kaari Satheesh and third accused Sattar, had filed the petition, pointing out that the chargesheet was incomplete and not filed even after 90 days and that they were eligible for statutory bail.
Mr. George’s counter petition, requesting the court to make him an additional respondent, pointed out that his version too had to be heard before considering the bail application by the accused. However, the court, considering the facts available and the present circumstances of the case, rejected the petition.
A decision on the bail plea by the accused will be announced on Tuesday. Meanwhile, hearing on the bail application filed in the Alappuzha Sessions Court by Om Prakash and Rajesh Puthenpalam, the 24th and 25th accused in the case, will be on Wednesday. The hearing was postponed on December 8 since the police could not submit the case diary in the court. The court, while postponing the hearing, had said that it would announce its decision on the bail plea after hearing only the arguments of the defence, if the case diary was not produced even on Wednesday.
