Lawyers’ association seeks inquiry against apex court judge

By IANS,

Kozhikode (Kerala) : The Kozhikode Bar Association Friday decided to request the Supreme Court to conduct a detailed inquiry against apex court judge Cyriac Joseph, who had allegedly viewed the CD of the narco-analysis of the suspects in the Sister Abhaya murder case and stated it to be genuine.


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The decision was taken at an extraordinary general body meeting of the association, with 180 members voting in favour of the resolution and six opposing it.

The resolution passed by the association requested the Supreme Court to conduct a detailed inquiry into Joseph’s action and take appropriate action. It also sought he should be kept from discharging his duties during the course of the inquiry.

Joseph is in the eye of a storm after a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) counsel told the Kerala High Court early this month that he, as then chief justice of Karnataka, had inspected a CD of a narco-analysis test conducted in Bangalore on three accused in the case and vouched for its veracity.

CBI counsel S. Sreekumar said that assistant director with the Bangalore based Forensic Science Laboratory, Malini, during questioning by the investigative agency, had said that Joseph had viewed the CD in May last year. The counsel made the observation after the victim’s father A. Thomas filed a contempt petition against the CBI for failing to investigate reports that the CD containing the narco-analysis tests was not original.

The Kerala High Court had earlier directed the CBI to verify the reports that said the CD was tampered with.

The body of Sister Abhaya, a resident of Pius X Hostel, was found in the well of the Kottayam convent March 27, 1992. The charge sheet filed last month names Thomas M. Kottor, the diocesan chancellor of the Catholic Church at Kottayam, Jose Putarika, a former professor at the Kottayam College where Abhaya studied, and Sister Seffi, a resident of the convent when the incident took place, as the accused.

The CBI had arrested the three Nov 19 last year but they secured bail Jan 1 this year.

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