Kottayam: The Kottayam Principal Sessions Court has admitted the duty logbook kept at the Gandhi Nagar police station as evidence in the proceedings for the case charged in connection with abduction and murder of Kevin P Joseph.
Challenging its admissibility, the defence counsel had argued that the logbook was not among the material evidence submitted in the court along with the charge-sheet and that it was produced afterwards. It has the details of the duties performed by police driver Ajayakumar, one of the prime witnesses.
The prosecution, giving an explanation as to why the duty log book was not submitted along with the charge-sheet, told the court that the material document in question had been produced before the Ettumanoor Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in connection with the same case much before the filing of the charge-sheet. The court, accepting the prosecution’s argument, stated that the material was admissible in evidence during the final phase of witness examination.
On the night Kevin was allegedly kidnapped and murdered by his fiancée Neenu’s family, a police patrol team attached to the Gandhi Nagar station comprising Civil Police Officer Ajayakumar and ASI T M Biju had intercepted the vehicle in which Neenu’s brother Sanu Chacko and his friend Shefin were travelling. The officers had also clicked photos of the duo’s identity cards and forwarded it to the then Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) through WhatsApp for verification.
Later, as per the directions of the ASI, a police team went to the house from where Kevin was kidnapped, and attempted to contact he prime accused – Neenu’s father Chacko John and Sanu – on the phone. All these details had been recorded in the duty log book kept at the Gandhi Nagar station by Ajayakumar the next day.
Meanwhile, the seven government officials, who assisted the SIT in the investigation and were included as witnesses in the case, gave statements in favour of the prosecution. They were: Kottayam principal sub-registrar Unnikrishnan Nair, Athirampuzha village officer T V Shami, Perumbaikad village officer Krishnakumar, Valacode village officer Sudarshan, Kottayam Tahsildar (Land Acquisition) T R Ramesh Kumar, Piravamkode village officer Jayaprasad, and PWD executive engineer Sheena Rajan.
Listing the case as an instance of ‘honour killing’, the chargesheet presented by the SIT had slapped murder charges against all 14 accused in the case including Chacko and Shanu.
