Thadiyantavide Nazeer and five others have been discharged by a CBI Special Court in a case booked for allegedly hatching a conspiracy to murder the late former Kerala Chief Minister E.K. Nayanar and other political dignitaries.
K. Kamanees, the CBI Special Judge 2, discharged the accused on November 20, 2023 after finding that the prosecution could not establish a prima facie case against any of the accused that they hatched a criminal conspiracy among themselves to overawe the government by using criminal force.
The discharged included Abdul Hameed, Mashood, Ismail, Thajudeen and Anwar. Subair and Shihab, the two other accused in case, are absconding. Nazeer is currently undergoing imprisonment in Bangalore serial blasts case.
The prosecution case was that the accused carried out a criminal conspiracy at a house at Pallikkunnu in 1999 to murder Nayanar, the then Chief Minister of Kerala, to protest against the arrest of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader Abdul Nasir Maudany.
The prosecution had also alleged that the accused conspired to indulge in criminal activities to overawe the State by criminal force for releasing Mr. Maudany, who was facing trial in Coimbatore bomb blast cases, from custody.
The prosecution had also claimed that Ismail, the first accused in the case, who was arrested while allegedly trying to tender counterfeit currency notes, had confessed to the criminal conspiracy. Ismail was later acquitted in the counterfeit currency case.
The investigation in the case was carried out by the Kannur unit of the Kerala Crime Branch.
There was no material suggesting that there was an agreement between the accused persons for an illegal purpose or to achieve some legal purpose by illegal means. The prosecution records also failed to reveal that the accused had the common objective to perform an illegal act, the court found.
The prosecution could not convince the court about the existence of any prima facie material justifying the framing of the charges against the accused and the existence of any grave suspicion regarding the commission of crimes by the accused, the court held.
