Onchiyam case: phone images admitted in court

The Special Additional District and Sessions Court (Marad cases), trying the T.P. Chandrasekharan murder case, on Saturday admitted in file three pictures taken in a cell phone showing some of the accused led by N.K. Sunil Kumar aka Kodi Suni meeting at a bar at Pandakkal at Mahe after hatching the conspiracy to kill the Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) leader.

The images captured in the mobile camera showed a witness N. Sarojan of Chempad sitting with the third accused, Kodi Suni, Kirmani Manoj (second accused), and K.K. Mohammed Shafi (fifth accused). The images of the accused consuming liquor were captured by the first accused M.C. Anoop in his mobile and stored in memory card.

The accused had gathered at the bar at Pandakkal in the afternoon on April 24. Chandrasekharan was killed by the hired gang at Vallikad at Onchiyam on May 4, 2012. They had assembled at the bar after reportedly meeting the 13th accused P.K. Kunhanandan, member of the Panur area committee of the CPI(M), at his house at Parat in the morning.

However, Sarojan, while testifying in court on Saturday refused to admit that the mobile phone images in which he was seen sitting with the accused at the bar was his. Previously, he had given a statement to the investigators that he ran a mobile shop at Champad and that Kirmani Manoj used to frequent his shop for repairing cell phone. He had also stated that he came in contact with Kodi Suni, Mohammed Shafi, Anoop and 18th accused P.V. Rafeeque aka Vazhappapadachi, through Kirmani Manoj. All these statements he retracted in court. The witness also failed to identify any of the accused. Subsequently, R. Narayana Pisharadi, special judge, declared him hostile following a request from the prosecution.

He had earlier given a statement to the police that Anoop had taken his picture with other accused while he was having a drink with his friend Shamsu at the bar at Pandakkal. But during cross examination he said that he never consumed liquor as he was a diabetic patient.

The court also declared another witness, K.K. Pradeepan of Panniyannur, hostile after he retracted the statement he had previously given to the police. With this, 45 witnesses out of the 82 persons so far examined turned adverse since the trial began on February 11.