Kerala High Court rejects bail plea of advocate C P Udayabhanu

KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Tuesday dismissed senior criminal lawyer C.P. Udayabhanu's anticipatory bail plea in the realtor Rajeevan murder case. The court said on an evaluation of the entire facts and circumstances "this is a case where custodial interrogation is highly essential as the link between the petitioner and the accused five and six have to be established.” Justice A. Hariprasad in his judgment also made an indirect criticism of the interim order of another judge, P. Ubaid, staying the arrest till the final disposal of the petition. 

“In the light of the principles in section 438 of the code, a court considering an anticipatory bail plea should take care to see that no orders are passed standing in the way of a proper investigation. Blanket orders passed by the courts handling applications for anticipatory bail preventing arrest have been deprecated. It can be seen that such orders are not in consonance with the scheme of the provisions of section of 438 of the Code,” it says. Stating that nobody is above the law, he held that the “petitioner is not entitled to get a pre-arrest bail in this case as his presence in custody for questioning is highly essential”.    

The court also refused to give any more time for advocate to surrender before the court or  investigators. According to the prosecution, the Mr Udayabhanu was the prime conspirator in the murder of the realtor following a dispute between the two over the repayment of money in connection with property deals.  Mr Udaybhanu, who is the seventh accused in the case, has been accused of entering into a conspiracy with the fifth and sixth defendants to eliminate Mr Rajeevan. 

The son of Mr Rajeevan had openly cited the threat posed by him and others to his life.  The victim had approached the chief minister, police chief and the HC seeking protection from the lawyer. He was allegedly kidnapped by a four-member gang on September 29 and was found dead in an estate house in the next day.  According to the police, the four-member gang was hired by a person named Chakkara Johnny of Angamally, having a bitter feud with Mr Rajeevan over real estate deals.  The first six accused persons are already under detention.

Police searches lawyer’s house in Tripunithura

The police team probing the murder of real estate broker Rajeevan has searched the residence of advocate Udayabhanu in Tripunithura on Tuesday. The advocate was not in the residence at the time of the search. A 10-member team led by Puthukkad circle inspector conducted the searches, soon after HC rejected his anticipatory bail plea. Sources close to the advocate said that he is planning to surrender in a court or before the police team. The police team has left a note in his house asking him to appear before them for interrogation. 

Meanwhile, the team led by special branch DySP (Rural) S. Shamsudeen had directed the police personnel to be present in civil dress at the magistrate courts at Chalakudy and Aluva on Tuesday. According to the sources close to SIT, the absconding lawyer had handed over his mobile phone to someone else and hence the effort to arrest the lawyer by following his mobile tower location  did not yield any result.