The Special Additional Sessions Court (Marad Cases) here, trying the murder of Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) leader T.P. Chandrasekharan, on Wednesday rejected a petition moved by the defence counsel that sought submission of call data records of the mobile phone of one of the investigators, Deputy Superintendent of Police A.P. Shoukathali, by the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited.
R. Narayana Pisharadi, judge, disallowed the contention of the defence counsel citing that summoning the data call records would infringe upon the intelligence network of the Police Department.
The defence counsel wanted to contest the statement of Mr. Shoukthali that he had arrested Lambu Pradeepan aka M.K. Pradeepan (the 31st accused in the case) at Thalassery on May 15, 2012.
The tower location of the mobile phone of the officer could reveal that he was not in Thalassery on that day, the defence counsel argued.
However, the court entertained two other petitions of the defence counsel seeking to examine executive officer K.P. Mohaharan of the Thiruvangad Sree Ramaswamy Temple, Thalassery.
He will be examined to confirm about a specific ritual at the temple. One of the prosecution witnesses had testified that he had gone to the temple to conduct the Santhana Gopala puja .
Member of RMP?
The court also allowed the examination of K. Valsan, secretary of the Eranmala grama panchayat, for determining that a prosecution witness, E.K. Shijil, was a local leader of the RMP.
Shijil had earlier testified that he was not a member of the RMP.
The case pertained to a seven-member gang, allegedly hired by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI-M], hacking to death Chandrasekharan at Vallikkad near Onchiyam on May 4, 2012.
The examination of the defence witnesses in the case began from Tuesday.
14 defence witnesses
The defence counsel had submitted a list of 14 witnesses, including representatives of three Malayalam newspapers.
The list has been submitted under Section 233 (entering upon defence) of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
A photographer, T.M. Bhaskaran, and CPI (M) worker V.P. Gopalakrishnan were examined for proving that the 14th accused P. Manoharan, member of the Kozhikdode district secretariat of the CPI (M), had participated at a party programme at Onchiyam Martyrdom Square on April 2, 2012.
