In May 2018, Kevin, a 23-year old Dalit Christian youth from Kottayam was found dead in the Challiyekkara river in Kolllam. He was in love with 21-year old Neenu and the couple had decided to get married despite opposition from the family. Neenu's family members including father Chacko and brother Shanu Chacko (main accused) have been charged in the high profile case.
The Punalur police in Kollam have arrested two out of a gang of five for attacking and threatening a witness in the high profile Kevin murder case. The victim has been identified as 32-year-old Rajesh who is witness number 37 in the case. Rajesh stated that the gang tried to force him to turn hostile.
"At 8 am on Sunday, he was attacked by a gang of five men near the Punalur market place. Two of the five men, Manu Muraleedharan and Shinu Nasser, are already accused in the Kevin murder case. Their bail has been cancelled and the duo, who are accused number 6 and 13 respectively, have been remanded to judicial custody by the Principal sessions court," SI of Punalur station told TNM.
Out of the remaining 3, the police have nabbed two of the attackers.
"They have been identified as Robin and Shahjahan and we arrested them at 5 am on Monday. There is one other person left to be nabbed," the SI added.
An FIR has been lodged by the police based on Rajesh's complaint and the accused persons have been booked under sections 143, 147, 341, 294 b, 323, 195 a 149 of the IPC.
'Blatant attempts to intimidate witnesses, sway trial'
The attack on Rajesh is the latest in a series of threats, intimidation and deceptive tactics deployed by the accused party to turn witnesses hostile.
As of May 17, a total of 5 witnesses have turned hostile, denying their earlier statements.
Two of the witnesses, Sulaiman and Allen, changed their stance during the trial proceedings in the Kottayam Principal Sessions Court on Friday, May 17.
Sulaiman, who is the neighbour of accused number 8, Nishad, denied his earlier statement that he had identified Nishad's phone being recovered. Sulaiman is witness number 98 in the case.
Meanwhile Allen, who works at a petrol pump near Nelliapally in Punalur denied that he had met the main accused outside the fuel station on the day of the abduction. Allen is witness number 27 in the case.
Speaking to TNM, Public Prosecutor CS Ajayan stated that two witnesses turning hostile would not impact the course of the case, as they were not crucial to the trial.
"We have direct evidence to prove that the accused had visited said petrol pump. There are bank statements which proves that main accused Shanu Chacko swiped his card between 10.20 and 10.23 pm on the day of the abduction. Witness number 108, Krishnachandran is the manager of State Bank of India branch where Shanu has an account and he presented the record," Ajayan told TNM.
Ajayan, however, added that overt attempts to harass witnesses were made by the accused party.
Media reports had stated that two other witnesses Suneesh and Muneer had denied statements made earlier recovery of mobile phones used by the accused. Last month, 20-year-old Abin Pradeep too had turned hostile during the trial proceedings in Kottayam.
Prior to this, several of the accused had also dressed similarly and got similar haircuts before appearing for identification before the court, in an attempt to confuse witnesses.