A probe has been launched into the reported missing of court documents in three criminal cases, including the Abhimanyu murder case, from the Ernakulam District and Sessions Court.
P.K. Mohandas, the Additional District and Sessions Judge 8, Ernakulam, will carry out a preliminary probe regarding the missing documents.
Besides the documents in the sensational Abhimanyu murder case, a few court records related to a case booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and another one booked under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act were reported to have gone missing. It was while considering an application for a certified copy of the case documents that the instance of missing papers in the Abhimanyu case was noticed.
Incidentally, the case of missing documents was reported to the Principal District and Sessions Judge in July 2023. The court, on its part, reported the case to the Kerala High Court, which ordered the reconstruction of the missing documents. The district court authorities had reported that the 13 documents, including the post-mortem examination certificate and chargesheet, were irrecoverably lost.
The reported missing of the Abhimanyu case documents had invited sharp responses from various quarters, including political parties. The BJP, the Congress, the CPI(M) and the relatives of Abhimanyu had demanded a thorough probe into the matter.
Meanwhile, the District and Sessions Court has decided to compare the copies of the documents in the Abhimanyu case that were produced by Special Prosecutor G. Mohanraj on March 18 (Monday) with the certified copies of these documents that were provided to the defence lawyers earlier.
The Principal District and Sessions Judge will compare the documents on March 25 after the defence lawyers recorded their objection on Monday regarding the documents produced by the prosecution.
The photocopies of the documents produced by the prosecution, if found matching with the ones supplied to the defence lawyers earlier, will be marked as “reconstructed documents” and added to the case file, sources said.
