Two accused in Kevin murder case lose bail

Kottayam: The principal sessions court here on Monday cancelled the bail granted to two of the accused in the Kevin murder case and remanded them in jail till the end of the trial.

Judge C.Jayachandran cancelled the bail of Manu Muraleedharan and Shinu Nasar, sixth and 13th accused respectively,  for violating the bail conditions and intimidating a witness.

The action followed a statement by Rajesh Kariath Madhavan, 37th witness, in the court that he was assaulted by the accused the other day at Punalur just before leaving for Kottayam to appear in the court.  The Punalur police has registered a case on the incident.

The court observed that the accused had tried to restrain a witness from deposing before the court, which amounted to violation of the conditions imposed by the High Court while granting bail. Hence, they were not entitled to get the same liberty.

While deposing before the judge, Rajesh made an extrajudicial confession that Fazal Sherif and Remees - two other accused in the case-- had told him about kidnapping two youths from Kottayam after demolishing the house of one among them. The incident took place only two days after  the abduction of Kevin along with Aneesh, one of his cousins.

During the day, the court also examined the Kottayam tahsildar, who verified Kevin was a convert to Christianity from the scheduled Caste.

The court on Tuesday will examine some natives of Chaliyekkara here who are associated with the respondents. They also include Muhammad Suhail, an aide of the accused who earlier gave a secret statement under Cr.Pc 164 in connection with the case.