Kochi: Advocates evict journalists from court premises

KOCHI: A group of advocates forcibly evicted the mediapersons from the premises of the Ernakulam district principal sessions court  and prevented them from reporting the proceedings in the Jisha murder case on the first day of the trial on Wednesday. A group of advocates showered abuses at the 12 mediapersons, including women reporters, before threatening them with dire consequences if they did not  vacate the premises.

Following this,  the court Shirastadar  appealed to the mediapersons to stay away from the court and avoid any untoward incidents. They abided by the appeal and walked out from the court. The group of advocates insisted that the reporters will not be allowed to stay inside the court room. They were sitting in a place normally used by them in the court.

The advocates created the ruckus when the court was considering the arguments of  Mr  B.A. Aloor, the counsel for  Ameerul Islam, the prime accused in the  murder case. The court  later postponed the trial of the case to December 5 on the plea made by the counsel for the accused that he needed more time to collect and study the material connected with the case and prosecution charges. The counsel submitted that the defence had  not been provided with many of the essential documents and sought  time for collecting them.

With regard to the case filed by Jisha’s father Pappu seeking a continuation of the probe,  the court  reserved the judgment to November 10. In his petition, Pappu  submitted that the present probe report had serious lapses and that further investigation was needed to prove the veracity of the report that more than one person was involved in the crime.