Pala: It happened many years ago in Pala, the famed town in Kerala's Kottayam district. The police had brought a murder accused to recover the knife used in the act. The lawyer of the accused came out of nowhere and whisked him away. The police could not track down the vehicle as it sped away through narrow lanes. The accused was produced in court within hours and bail obtained.
The lawyer was K M Mani, the supremo of the Kerala Congress (Mani) outfit, who passed away on Tuesday.
As they could not catch the real culprit, the police had used a dummy culprit and had placed a fake murder weapon too. This had to be recovered by the accused itself as that was key evidence.
Mani represented this man being implicated by the cops. He knew of this plan in advance and rescued the falsely accused man in no time with a daring intervention.
Mani had secured his Law degree from the Madras Law College. He had fought cases in Kozhikode, Pala sub-court and Kottayam district court. He was interested in criminal cases.
He represented the Kerala Congress before the Election Commission in the 1979 split case. He always regretted not practicing in the Supreme Court. On a recent birthday, he said ‘maybe it’s not too late to try again’.
