TP Chandrasekharan murder case: 3 convicts booked for consuming liquor on way back from court in Kerala

Kannur: Kodi Suni and two others convicted in the sensational T P Chandrasekharan murder case of 2012 have been booked for allegedly consuming alcohol in a public place while being escorted back to prison after appearing in a court in connection with a different case, police sources said on Saturday.

Thalassery Town Police have registered a case late on August 8.

The purported CCTV footage showing Suni, Shinoj and Mohammed Shafi consuming alcohol in a hotel while being escorted back to Kannur Central Prison from Thalassery Additional District Court triggered a political controversy in the state recently.

The opposition Congress was already accusing the Left government of giving undue favours to the Chandrasekharan murder case convicts in jail and granting them parole, violating norms.

Though the alleged incident of convicts consuming alcohol happened in June, the police are yet to register a case. As the issue triggered a row, three police personnel have been suspended in connection with the incident.

The case was registered under sections 15 (C) (prohibits consumption of liquor in public places) and 63 (for offences not covered otherwise) of the Kerala Abkari Act (prohibition act), police added.

As per the FIR, the accused have violated the existing Abkari rules by consuming liquor publicly in the car parking area of a hotel here on June 17.

Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) leader Chandrasekharan was brutally hacked to death at Onchiyam in Kozhikode district on May 4, 2012, by a gang of assailants, with leaders of the ruling CPI(M) facing allegations of conspiracy in the incident.