Drama as two surrender in Kerala court

LAWYERS ACCUSE POLICE OF ILLEGALLY DETAINING PAIR IN ACTRESS ASSAULT CASE

In a courtroom drama at high noon that unfolded like a movie script, police in Kochi arrested two of the key accused in last week’s waylaying and attack on a popular Malayalam film actress.

The drama unfolded when the suspects came to the additional chief judicial magistrate’s court in Kochi to surrender.

Six days after their attack on the actress, the two accused, ‘Pulsar’ Suni and K.P. Vijeesh made a dramatic entry into the courtroom yesterday, arriving by a two-wheeler, scaling the rear compound wall of the court and sprinting up to the first floor of the court building.

Court on lunch break

Fortuitously for the state police force, when the accused arrived, the court was having its official lunch break, though the magistrate was in his chamber.

Seizing the opportunity, a posse of policemen who had been camping around the court for days expecting the surrender of the suspects, forcibly took them away into a police vehicle and the two were spirited away for questioning at the Aluva Police Club.

The defence lawyers and several other lawyers protested the police action, saying it was illegal to forcibly take away and arrest the suspects who had surrendered in court.

“The suspects were in the courtroom, and we had submitted the surrender application. The magistrate said he would either hear the petition in the chamber or in the open court. It was then that the police forcibly took them away”, said defence lawyer Krishna Kumar.