High Court directive to hand over case diary

Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Wednesday directed the State government and the police to hand over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in two days the case diary relating to the custodial death of Sampath, prime accused in the murder of Sheela of Puthur in Palakkad.

Justice V.Ramkumar issued the directive while disposing of a petition filed by the CBI seeking a directive to the police to hand over the case diary.

The CBI said the files were yet to be given to the CBI though a Division Bench dismissed an appeal filed by the State government against the single judges directive for a CBI probe on June 11. The investigation could be started only if the CBI received those files, the CBI said.

The government submitted that the police were not able to hand over the files, as the files were submitted to the Supreme Court in connection with the appeal filed against the High Court order. The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed the appeal filed by the government.

In its appeal, the government had said the State polices impartial investigation had revealed that Sampath had died of torture and third-degree methods inflicted on him in custody by a police team . Twelve policemen had been suspended. When the investigation was going on in the right direction, the High Court had ordered a CBI investigation