Biju killed Reshmi: witness

He told the witness that it was “a slip of the hand”

November 22, 2013 10:25 am | Updated November 16, 2021 09:34 pm IST - KOLLAM

A witness in the Reshmi murder case told the District and Sessions Court Judge Ashok Menon here on Thursday that Reshmi was killed on the day she was to have got legally married to Biju Radhakrishnan.

The key witness, Geminsha Beevi who is a district general secretary of the Kerala Congress (M), told the court that Biju had even confessed to her that he had killed Reshmi and that it was “a slip of the hand.”

Confession

The confession was made on the morning of February 4, 2006, the day Reshmi was declared dead on arrival at the Kottarakara taluk hospital, she said.

Testifying as witness number 23 in the case during chief examination by Special Public Prosecutor G. Mohanraj, Ms. Beevi said she had maintained a close relationship with Biju’s family in connection with some financial dealings.

She said she was cheated in the deals and had lodged police petitions against him and Saritha S. Nair. Ms. Beevi said ten days before her death, Reshmi came to her house telling that her life was in danger because Biju had threatened to kill her. She said that her wedding was a contract to live together which was formalised at the Adoor Sub Registrar office. She requested help in getting the wedding legalised since Biju was allegedly planning to desert her and live with Saritha.

Complaint

The witness told the court that she soon asked Reshmi to write a police complaint which the latter wrote and before forwarding it to the police she had taken and kept a copy of it.

She then went to Biju’s house on February 3, and in the presence of the couple and his mother, Rajammal, talked about the need to get his marriage with Reshmi legalised. After much coaxing the mother and son agreed to it and Ms. Beevi fixed the ceremony to he held at Kadakkal the next day.

But, the next day, early in the morning, Biju came to her house saying that “Reshmi is no more.” She asked him in panic whether he had killed Reshmi, to which he replied “it was a slip of the hand,” the witness told the court.

The copy of the police complaint Reshmi had written was later handed over to the Crime Branch CID which probed the case.

The witness then said that she made arrangements with a Punalur-based lawyer for Biju. He went to Punalur the same day where the lawyer arranged a hotel room in the town.

But later Biju absconded from there and the hotel bills had to be paid by her, the witness told the court. Witness number 19, Prabhakaran Pillai, told the court that along with Biju and Rajammal he was also one among those who had taken Reshmi to the Kottarakara hospital.

At that time he was under the impression that Reshmi was unconscious.

Absconded

When the doctor said that Reshmi was dead and that an autopsy was mandatory, both son and mother absconded from the hospital, he said.

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