Periya murder: Judgment points out flaws in crime branch probe

CBI argued state agency played foul in omitting key political leaders from chargesheet

- TOBY ANTONY @Kochi

Despite the CPM claiming that the CBI probe hasn't revealed anything new that the crime branch (CB) did not when it first probed the Periya twin murder case, the CBI court ruling convicting 14 party activists for the murder of two Youth Congress workers specifies that statements of several key witnesses were not fully recorded by the state investigating agency.

The court also took note of the CBI argument that some political leaders were deliberately omitted from the case.

According to the judgment, statements of several crucial witnesses, including M K Krishnan, Sarath Lal's uncle Damodaran, ASI Manoj of Bekkal police station, Sarath Lal's sister Amritha, district president of the Youth Congress Pradeep Kumar, and Anoop were not fully recorded by CB.