Thiruvanthapuram: Raising many eyebrows, as many as 11 documents, including charge-sheet, postmortem report and statements of witnesses and accused, in the 2018 murder case of Maharajas College student Abhimanyu went missing from a court in Kochi.
The incident assumes much significance as accused in the case include activists of the banned outfit Popular Front of India (PFI). The 26 accused in the case included activists of PFI, its student outfit Campus Front and its political arm SDPI.
After the principal sessions court in Kochi informed the Kerala High Court documents went missing in last December, the High Court has instructed the missing documents shall be reconstructed using the copies of the documents.
All parties in the case are asked to give any objections, if any, towards reconstructing the documents by March 17. The incident came out only the other day after notices were sent to the parties concerned.
Police sources said that so far there was no evidence of sabotage. Most of the documents that went missing were those that could be reconstructed from copies available. Many other crucial pieces of evidence, including material objects, were not missing. Hence the case might not be affected.
The court was learnt to be carrying out an internal inquiry to trace the missing documents. There could be chances that the documents got mixed up with other case files.
In view of the involvement of the PFI in the case, the police intelligence agencies are also learnt to be closely tracking the developments.
Meanwhile, CPM state secretary M V Govindan said on Friday that the missing of documents from the court should be considered seriously. He demanded that a detailed probe should be initiated and stringent action should be taken against those responsible.