After the Abhimanyu murder case, documents in two more cases have gone missing from the Ernakulam District Court.
A few documents pertaining to a crime booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) and another criminal case have been reported as missing from the court. The issue of missing court documents in the second case surfaced when a bail application of some of the accused was scheduled by the court. It was during a drive to clear the pendency of cases that the absence of documents in the NDPS case surfaced. Both the cases were pending before the court for more than five years. The Bench clerks and their assistants are the custodians of the court documents. A few instances of missing documents have also been reported from civil and criminal courts in the district, sources said.
Incidentally, the missing of 13 documents in the sensational Abhimanyu murder case had grown into a political controversy with the BJP and the Congress leaders putting the blame on the CPI (M). They also suspected that attempts were made to sabotage the trial and save the accused in the political murder of Abhimanyu.
Responding to the allegations, CPI (M) leaders, including the party State secretary M. V. Govindan, Law Minister P. Rajeeve and the party Idukki district committee, demanded a probe into the incidents. The police had earlier chargesheeted the Campus Front of India and the Popular Front of India activists for murdering Abhimanyu, an SFI leader.
The missing documents in the Abhimanyu case came to light when the court considered a second set of applications for the certified copies of the case documents. Earlier, a set of certified copies of the documents were issued by the court. The Kerala High Court had ordered the trial court to reconstruct the missing documents after the district court authorities reported the matter.
The court is understood to have launched a high-level inquiry into the case of missing documents in the three cases.
