The Ernakulam City police remain optimistic of getting custody of the seven accused in the Kallada assault case with their petition seeking custody of the accused set to come up before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court, Ernakulam, on Saturday.
The accused were remanded on Tuesday after the Maradu police arrested them in three separate batches shortly after a social media video of the passengers getting assaulted inside the bus bound for Bengaluru had gone viral on Easter day.
“We have sought custody of the accused for five days and are hopeful that it will be granted. They have to be further interrogated to ascertain whether more people were involved in the crime, while a laptop of a passenger is also missing,” said Stuart Keeler, Thrikkakara Assistant Commissioner of Police and the investigating officer of the case.
Jithin, 25, of Kodakara in Thrissur; Jayesh, 29, of Pallikkal in Thiruvananthapuram; Rajesh, 26, of Alappuzha; Anwar, 38, from Puducherry; Girilal, 37, of Kollam; Vishnu, 27, of Alappuzha; and Kumar, 55, of Coimbatore; were arrested by the police earlier this week.
Mr. Keeler said the police had already submitted a report to the Motor Vehicles Department on unauthorised operation of contract carriages, based on which the latter had launched a State-wide operation against such carriages.
Owner’s claim
Meanwhile, the police are learnt to have received no evidence directly linking the owner of the contract carriage operator Suresh Kallada to the incident from the statement he gave before the investigating officer on Thursday. He had reportedly told the police that he hardly contacted his employees directly except through middle- level officials.