Attack on Thamarassery forest office: Court to re-examine investigating officer on March 4

The Kozhikode Special Additional Sessions Court (Marad cases) will again examine P. P. Sadanandan, who was formerly the Deputy Superintendent of Police with the District Crime Branch (Kozhikode rural), on March 4 in the Thamarassery Forest office attack case. A petition earlier moved by Additional Public Prosecutor K. Raihanath for the same was approved by the court on Wednesday.

Mr. Sadanandan was the investigating officer after the case was taken up by the District Crime Branch from the local police. The option to recall the witness was done as many of the witnesses, except a senior civil police officer, turned hostile during the trial.

Key statement

The statement of Senior Civil Police Officer K. Suresh in the court on Wednesday that there were three more suspects in the case came in support of the prosecution’s argument. Also, he had managed to identify 12 accused in the case. The officer stood firm in his statement when one of the other crucial witnesses K. Subrahmanyan, who was a beat forest officer, too turned hostile recently against the expectations of the prosecution.

Based on this latest statement of Mr. Suresh, the Additional Public Prosecutor would move a fresh petition in the court to arraign those three more persons in the case. According to sources, the names of the three had been there at the time of registering the First Information Report by the local police, but were later removed.

2013 incident

Initially, there were 37 accused in the incident in which the Thamarassery forest office was set afire during a rural hartal against the Kasturi Rangan panel report on November 15, 2013. Many government officials, including police and forest department officers, were witnesses to the incident.

It was on December 1, 2022 that the trial began in the case. The prosecution was primarily dependent on the certified copies of various documents like scene mahazar and statement of witnesses obtained from the court to try the case subsequent to the suspicious missing of the case diary. Forest Minister A.K. Saseendran had ordered an inquiry into the incident after the issue drew wide public attention.