The Ernakulam Chief Judicial Magistrate Court has issued notice to the eight accused, including former MLA K.V. Kunhiraman, arraigned as accused by the Central Bureau of INvestigation (CBI) in the Periye twin murder case to appear on December 15.
Among the accused are Raghavan Velutholi, K.V. Bhaskaran, Gopal Velutholi, and Sandeep Velutholi, who were arraigned as accused by the investigating agency on December 2 and K. Manikandan, Balakrishnan, and Mani.
Among them, Sandeep is abroad. The CBI has reportedly initiated measures to bring him back.
By the time the CBI had taken over the case following a High Court direction, the police had already arrested 14 accused, including the first accused and CPI(M) local leader Peethambharan, in connection with the murder of Youth Congress activists Kripesh and Sarath Lal on February 17, 2019.
Later, the CBI arrested Raju, aka P. Rajesh, a CPI (M) branch secretary, and party activists Vishnu, Sura, aka Surendran, Shastha Madhu, aka Madhu, Regi Varghese, and Hariprasad on December 1.
Besides, the CBI arraigned more including Kunhiraman, taking the number of accused to 24. The court has now asked the accused to appear as part of further taking forward the proceedings. Since the CBI is now in charge of the probe, further proceedings will have to take place at the CBI court in Ernakulam.
