A day after they were arrested by the Crime Branch, the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Court (Economic Offences), Ernakulam, sent the two accused in the Kochi beauty parlour firing case to five days’ police custody.
Though the Crime Branch had sought 14 days’ custody, the court turned it down.
Bilal, 25, of Kombara in Aluva NAD, and Vipin Varghese, 30, of Thevara, arraigned as the first and the second accused who allegedly fired shots at the beauty parlour owned by actor Leena Maria Paul were arrested on Thursday night. They were absconding since the incident on December 15, 2018. Gangster Ravi Pujari had been arraigned as the third accused.
The Crime Branch took into custody another suspect connected to the case from a hotel at Aluva late on Friday. Althaf, 28, of Elamakkara, is suspected to have arranged weapons and vehicle for the accused for the operation. His arrest is likely to be registered later in the night in which case he will be produced in court on Saturday.
Remand report
As per the remand report submitted by Jossy Cherian, Dy.SP., Crime Branch Central Unit – II, he summoned Vipin to his office on Thursday for detailed questioning after receiving hints about the accused following investigations held involving the motorcycle model the accused had used, CCTV footage of the accused and their physique, and the tower dump analysis of call data records of their mobile phones. After being convinced about his involvement, he was arrested at 9 p.m.
Weapons recovered
Based on his statements, Bilal was picked up from his house and arrested at 10 p.m.
The Crime Branch sleuths recovered the revolver, pistol, jackets and helmets used by the accused from the homes of Bilal and that of Vipin's sister on Friday morning. Mr. Cherian in his remand report said that Ravi Pujari had conspired with the two accused with the objective of extorting money from Ms. Paul through intimidation. Apart from Internet calls from three numbers, the gangsters had intimidated the actor-turned-businesswoman by ringing up her from different numbers registered in Senegal, France and and Malaysia between November 4 and December 25, 2018 with a demand for ransom of ₹25 crore.
It was to further intimidate her that the two accused were sent there to fire shots at her beauty parlour, the remand report said.
Bilal has seven cases registered against him by the Aluva East, Thodupuzha and Thrikkakara Police invoking Section of Arms Act, Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act and IPC while Vipin has two cases, including under the Arms Act, registered against him by Kadavanthra and South police.
The case, which was initially investigated by a police team under the Thrikkakara Assistant Commissioner, was handed over to the Crime Branch on February 8, 2019.