Scooter used by Youth Congress leader to attack AKG Centre found

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The crime branch has recovered the two-wheeler which was allegedly used by Youth Congress leader V Jithin to hurl explosives at the AKG Centre. The crime branch sources said the scooter was recovered from Kadinamkulam near Kazhakootam.n Crime branch SP S Madhusoodanan said the “owner of the vehicle is abroad and his identity cannot be revealed”.

But other sources said the vehicle belonged to a person, whose brother had earlier worked as a driver of a Youth Congress district leader. The inability of the probe team to seize the vehicle was the main contention that the defence counsel had raised during the hearing of the bail petition moved by the accused on Thursday.

During the hearing, the prosecution had argued that there were scientific evidence against the accused, who is the Youth Congress Attipra mandalam president, and a detailed probe was on to find the scooter.  
The crime branch sleuths arrested Jithin on September 22 claiming that he was one who had hurled explosives at the AKG Centre on June 30. The CPM leaders had pinned the blame on Congress for the attack, and the case was first probed by a special police team.

However, it failed to ascertain the identity of the man, who was found hurling explosives from the CCTV footage. The delay in arresting the suspect had snowballed into a controversy with Congress alleging that the attack could have been organised by the CPM itself. Later, the case was handed over to the crime branch.

The crime branch in its remand report had claimed that the CCTV visuals were developed and during that the branded shirt that the suspect wore was identified. It was also learnt that the suspect used a Honda Dio standard model two-wheeler for executing the crime.