Witness in Mohammed Nisham case turns hostile

Thrissur: In a dramatic turn  in the Chandrabose murder case trial here on Monday,  the first prosecution witness  turned hostile and said business tycoon Mohammed Nisham, who allegedly killed the watchman, was innocent.

K.C. Anoop, the witness,   was the supervisor of the security guards at the Sobha City in Thrissur, where Mohammed Nisham allegedly assaulted Chandrabose and rammed his Hummer on him in  the wee hours on January 29. 

But on the first day of the final trial in the case at the Thrissur District Additional Sessions Court, he denied seeing Nisham inflicting fatal injuries on Chandrabose or hitting  the victim intentionally with the Hummer.

As the witness started retracting from the earlier statement he had given to the police after the incident and during the recording of his statement before the magistrate in February as per CrPC 164, Special Public Prosecutor C.P. Udayabhanu requested judge K.P. Sudhir to declare the witness hostile and asked for cross-examining him.

After he was declared hostile by the court, the witness said that he was under pressure from the police team investigating the case not to mention in his statement earlier recorded before the magistrate some facts that he had found to be true.

During the cross-examination, he said  his understanding was that the accused Nisham was innocent. When the judge asked him  whether he was aware of the repercussions of contradicting the 164 statement as it would invite severe punishment, Anoop replied in affirmative. The cross-examination would continue on Tuesday.

Later,  Mr Udayabhanu told reporters  that the first witness turning hostile would not affect the case and that a case of perjury under CrPC 340 would be registered against Anoop after his cross- examination was  over. “The hostile witness could even get  life imprisonment for perjury,” the SPP said.