Onchiyam murder case: witness turns hostile

V. Vijesh says he was forced to give statement

The prosecution in the T.P. Chandrasekharan murder case suffered another jolt on Friday with one more witness turning hostile, the second this week.

Special judge R. Narayana Pisharadi of the Special Additional District and Sessions Court (Marad cases), which is trying the case, declared V. Vijesh, 34, of Puthiyaparambathu Veedu, New Mahe, as an adverse witness.

The case related to a killer gang hacking to death the Revolutionary Marxist Party leader at Onchiyam on May 4, 2012. On Wednesday, a key prosecution witness, T.K. Sumesh, aka Kochakkalan Sumesh, had turned hostile.

The court declared Vijesh hostile after special prosecutor P. Kumarankutty requested the judge to do so when be began to deny the statements he had given to the investigators at the time of the probe. The prosecution wanted Vijesh to establish that he had taken a mobile SIM card for his friend E.M. Shaji, who was named as the 23rd accused in the case. Shaji, who is the brother of E.M. Dayanandan, acting secretary of the Onchiyam area committee of the CPI(M), had requested Vijesh to take a SIM card in the name of his mother, between February 2012 and May 4, 2012.

This SIM card had been used by the eighth accused K.C. Ramachandran, member of the Kunnummakkara local committee of the CPI(M), with “the intention of aiding and facilitating the murder of Chandrasekharan,” according to the prosecution.

During cross-examination, Vijesh denied that he had given a statement to the police during investigation. However, he admitted he had given a statement under Section 164 (recording of confessions and statements) twice to the Payyoli Judicial First Class Magistrate Court.

Vijesh told the court that he was forced to give a statement to the magistrate as the police threatened to arraign him as an accused in the murder case.

He retracted the contents he had given to the magistrate.

He denied that he was the secretary or a member of the Cherukallai branch of the CPI(M). But he admitted that he had taken part in the programmes of the party.