CBI returns warrants against Yasin, Sakhare

KOCHI: The CBI team probing the Sampath custodial murder case on Thursday made a Uturn by returning the non-bailable arrest warrants issued by the Ernakulam Chief Judicial Magistrate Court against two IPS officers accused in the case.The court had issued warrants against the then Thrissur Range IG Mohammed Yasin and Palakkad SP Vijay Sakhare. Yasin and Sakhare are the 15th and 16th accused respectively.The CJM court issued the nonbailable arrest warrants against the six accused on March 23 as requested by the CBI. The very next day the CBI arrested policemen Ramesh, Unnikrishnan and Ramachandran. "An application for issuance of warrant of arrest was filed without carrying out any assessment of any evidence collected till then, and as the chief investigating officer did not have the benefit of supervision by senior officers, the CBI applied for warrants on the ground that the officers were influential who could resist arrest. Now it is felt that such apprehension is baseless," the CBI submitted before the CJM court.The CBI made the submission on a petition filed by Sampath's brother Murukesan seeking the arrest of Yasin and Sakhare."There were no sincere efforts on the part of the CBI to execute the nonbailable warrants against the officers who are still threatening and intimidating witnesses using their official capacity. The investigation team did not arrest Yasin and Sakhare though the highranking police officers were 'very much available,' Murukesan submitted in the petition.