Kochi: The High Court of Kerala on Wednesday, January 8, suspended the conviction of former Udma MLA K V Kunhiraman (62), Kanhangad Block Panchayat president K Manikandan (45), and CPM leaders Raghavan Vellutholi (54) and K V Bhaskaran (58), who were sentenced to five years in prison for forcibly rescuing an accused in the Periya double murder case from police custody.

The four leaders approached the high court appealing against their conviction on January 6. Justices P B Suresh Kumar and Jobin Sebastian heard the case on January 7, and on January 8 suspended the sentence, said Adv S Rajeev, who represented the four convicts.

The leaders are lodged in the Central Prison and Correctional Home in Kannur, nearly 300 km from Kochi.

Their legal team must approach the special CBI court in Kochi, which convicted them on January 3, to execute bail bonds and obtain a discharge order, which must then be taken to the Kannur prison to secure their release today.

The CBI's prosecution team, led by Adv Bobby Joseph Y, said that the suspension of the sentence was expected in the case of a criminal appeal, given that the conviction was for less than seven years. The team said that the CBI's senior counsel, K P Satheesan, could only raise a perfunctory objection. "The high court will go into the merit of the case only at a later stage," said the CBI team.

Nevertheless, the suspension of the verdict gives the CPM and its leaders much-needed political relief.

On December 28, 2024, Special CBI Court judge N Seshadrinathan found the four CPM leaders guilty under Section 225 of the IPC for rescuing the second accused, Saji C George, from police custody on the night of January 18, 2019, a day after Kripesh and Sarathlal were murdered.

On January 3, the judge sentenced them to five years in prison, shocking the CPM, as party leaders had anticipated a two-year suspended sentence.

Two-time Udma MLA K V Kunhiraman is a member of the CPM's Kasaragod District Secretariat, the highest decision-making body. He was in line to be the CPM's next District Secretary in Kasaragod. K Manikandan is a member of the CPM's District Committee and is groomed by the party to be a future MLA.

Raghavan Velutholy is CPM's former Pakkam local committee secretary and former district president of the CPM's traders' wing, Kerala Vyapari Vyavasayi Samithi. K V Bhaskaran, retired secretary of the CPM-controlled Panayal Service Cooperative Bank.

The same judge had convicted 10 CPM workers and grassroots leaders and sentenced them to double life imprisonment for the conspiracy and murder of Kripesh and Sarathlal at Kalliyot near Periya on February 17, 2019.

The four leaders became publicly entangled in the double murder case after they rescued the second accused, Saji C. George, from police custody in the Cherutta forest area near Pakkam, about 10 km from Kalliyot, on February 18.

Defence vs Prosecution
Defence counsel Adv Rajeev, who represented the four convicts, told Onmanorama that the prosecution erred by combining the murder case with the alleged rescue of an accused from police custody and conducting a single trial for the two offences.

In the first place, the prosecution could not invoke Section 225 of the IPC because when Saji C George was allegedly rescued by the CPM leaders, he was not an accused in the Periya double murder case, he said. "The murder happened on February 17, Saji was allegedly rescued on February 18, and he was named as an accused in the FIR on February 20, 2019," he said.

The State Crime Branch, Malappuram Unit, which investigated the case, did not acknowledge the incident that occurred on February 18. In the charge sheet filed by Crime Branch DySP V M Pradeep Kumar, there was no reference to the alleged rescue of an accused.

The officer, however, charged Manikandan with destroying evidence and harbouring the eight assailants involved in the murder.

But when the CBI took over the case and came to know of the rescue of an accused from police custody, it charged K V Kunhiraman, K Manikandan, Raghavan Velutholi and K V Bhaskaran with Section 225 of the IPC.

The CBI also wrote to the Kerala Police recommending departmental action against an inspector who was at the spot but did not report the incident.

The police instituted an inquiry headed by Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Harish Chandra Naik. "The inquiry concluded that such a rescue incident did not happen and the inspector was exonerated," said Adv Rajeev. "How can they be convicted when the report said the incident did not happen," he said. These are the grounds on which the criminal appeal was filed against the conviction, he said.

To be sure, ace criminal lawyer C K Sreedharan, representing K V Kunhiraman, had also challenged the applicability of Section 225 in the trial court.

The CBI's prosecution team said that Section 225 of the IPC applied not just to the accused but also to suspects. Section 225 states that if a person charged with or 'liable to be apprehended' for an offence punishable with death is forcibly freed from custody, the rescuers can be punished with imprisonment of up to seven years. "The High Court might not have suspended the sentence today if the trial court had handed down the maximum punishment of seven years," said the CBI team.

Referring to the police inquiry report that concluded the incident did not occur, the CBI's prosecution team said that the inspector involved, who was exonerated, testified in the trial court that the forcible rescue did take place on the night of February 18. "The officer, now a Deputy Superintendent of Police, even named the four CPM leaders in his testimony," the CBI's lead counsel told Onmanorama.