Two more prosecution witnesses on Thursday turned hostile during the trial of the two accused in the massacre of nine fishermen at Marad village on May 2, 2003.
Special judge (Special Additional Sessions Court (Marad cases) S. Krishnakumar declared the witnesses, K. Shamsudeen of Kondotty and S. Ali of Mathottam Beypore hostile under Section 154 (question by party to his own witness) of the Indian Evidence Act. So far, five persons have turned hostile in the case.
Mr. Shamsudeen had to testify that the fourth accused, Mr. M.K. Marzook, had purchased from his shop explosive substances such as gelatine sticks, wicks, and reels of tapes for manufacturing bombs, while Mr. Ali had to give evidence that Mr. Marzook had purchased from his shop nails for adding inside the bombs to increase injury.
However, both retracted their statements which they had confirmed to the special police team during the initial stages of probe. Incidentally they had also made a volte-face during the trial earlier also.
Trial continues
The special court is now trying Anangadi Kuttichentepurayil Koyamon, a.k.a. Hydroskutty, 50, and Kalluvencheveettil Nizamudeen, 31, separately as both of them had been absconding when the original charge-sheet was filed against 148 accused involved in the case.
In a related development, a witness, N.P. Ummer, against whom the court served a warrant for failing to turn up for deposition, appeared before the court on Thursday. He was one of prosecution witnesses facing warrants under Section 90 (a) [generally applicable to summonses and warrants of arrests] of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). The Crime Branch- Criminal Investigation Department had been asked to produce him in court.
In his deposition, Mr. Ummer told the court that he had been seen the police team led by a Dy.SP taking an accused Mr. Mammed, who is a blacksmith and recovering a sword from his foundry. Another witness, P. Jamaludeen of Beypore, deposed that he had introduced Mr. Marzook to his father-in-law Mohammed Haji, who later purchased explosive materials for the accused from Mr. Shamsudeen’s shop.
P.P. Unnikrishnan, former Additional Sub Inspector, Kondotty, who had seized explosive substances from the shop of Mr. Shamsudeen and registered a case in connection with the incident, also deposed in favour of the prosecution.
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