Criticism in Muthoot murder case : Govt. yet to approach court

By Arjun Raghunath

T’Puram, June 1.

Even as the State Government makes a hue of cry over the High Court’s criticism against the Police Department in general and a police officer in particular in connection with the Sampath custodial death case, it has come to light that the Government has not yet approached the court against the factual errors in a similar judgment of the HC in the Paul Muthoot George murder case six months back.

While ordering a CBI probe in the Paul Muthoot murder case in January, the High Court had come down heavily on the State Police as well as then Ernakulam-range IG Vinson M. Paul who was supervising the probe into the murder case.

Subsequently, the Advocate General’s office had pointed out to the Government that there were as many as 34 factual errors in the HC judgment that might have led to the observations of the court. The AG’s office had also advised that the State Government may file a review petition before the Supreme Court seeking removal of the factual errors.

Highly placed sources in the Home Department had then told the media that a review petition would be filed at the SC against the `factual-errors’ in the HC judgment, but would not oppose the CBI probe.

However, it is reliably learnt that till date the Government had not filed any review petition at the Supreme Court.

When contacted by Express, a senior official in the Home Department asked: ``Why should we go to court for the mistakes made by the court ? ‘’. ``The errors in the judgment are still there on record, ‘’ he added.

`It is the laxity of the Government in effectively resisting such observations that leaves the police always at the receiving end, ‘’ said a top-ranking police officer. The Government should strongly present the facts before the court in such cases so that the police could be spared from such remarks, he added.

While ordering a CBI probe into the Smpath custodial death case last week, the HC had strongly criticised both the police investigation into the case as well as the conduct of then Palakkad SP Vijay Sakre.

Ends.