The Kerala High Court on Tuesday asked the Crime Branch, which is probing the Kasaragod twin murder of Youth Congress workers, how did political motive, which was cited as the reason for the crime in First Information Report (FIR), turned to personal animosity in the chargesheet.
On Monday, the Crime Branch had concluded that though politicians were involved in the crime, there was no political angle to the murders and personal animosity was the reason behind the crime.
The High Court also asked that if personal enmity was towards one person, then why was the second Youth Congress worker, too, killed, reports OnManorama.
The two members of the Congress party's youth wing, 24-year-old Sharath Lal and 22-year-old Kripesh, were hacked to death on February 17 by three men. Both of them died following serious injuries sustained in the attacked.
The High Court made the observation while considering the bail plea of three accused persons in the case: Saji C George (second accused), Murali (ninth accused) and Ranjith (tenth accused).
According to reports, the court also lashed out at the Crime Branch for not collecting the fingerprints of the accused from material objects.
According to report of The New Indian Express, senior advocate B Raman Pillai argued in the court on Tuesday that there were no evidence against the three accused who have given bail plea. Meanwhile, the prosecution stated that the three were actively involved in the crime.
The High Court also observed that if the case did not have an occurrence witness (a person who was present at the crime scene and saw it take place), the Crime Branch should have collected fingerprints from the vehicle and weapons used in the crime.
In the chargesheet filed at the Hosdurg Judicial First Class Magistrate Court on Monday, 14 persons have been named as accused in the crime and all of them have links to the CPI(M). This includes CPI(M) Periya local committee member A Peethambaran and the party Udma area secretary and Periya local committee secretary N Balakrishnan.
Soon after the murder of Kripesh and Sharath Lal, their families had alleged that Peethambaran was directly involved in the crime. Following this, the party expelled him and was arrested by the police alleging him to be the main conspirator of the murders.