Kevin murder case: To confuse witness, all accused dress in similar clothes for trial

Key witness Anish identified seven of the 14 accused who had appeared on Thursday.

news Kevin murder case

On Thursday, Kottayam Additional Sessions Court began the trial of the Kevin murder case, in which a 23-year-old Dalit Christian boy from Kottayam was abducted and allegedly murdered for deciding to marry Neenu (21), a girl he was in love with.

Kevin’s cousin and key witness Anish, who was also abducted by the gang and had managed to escape, identified seven of the 14 accused who had appeared before the court.

In a twist, all the 14 accused including Neenu's brother Shanu Chacko and father Chacko, had worn the same coloured clothes and had got similar haircuts. Noticing this, special prosecutor CS Ajayan argued that this was a deliberate attempt by the accused to confuse the witness.

“All of them had worn white clothes and they all dressed similarly. They had also cut their hair really short. Despite this, the key witness ended up identifying seven of the accused. However, he could not identify the others as their appearance confused the witness,” CS Ajayan told TNM.

According to reports, while Anish was able to identify those who had abducted him including Shanu Chacko, he could not identify Neenu’s father and fifth accused Chacko.

On March 14, 2019, the court charged all 14 of the accused in the case with murder, following the framing of charges.

The accused, including Shanu Chacko, brother of Kevin’s partner Neenu, have been charged with IPC sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention), 449 (House-trespass in order to commit offence), 427 (Mischief causing damage to the amount of Rs 50) 506 (2) (criminal intimidation), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 342 (wrongful confinement) 364, 364 A (kidnapping or abducting in order to murder) and 302 (murder).

In May 2018, Kevin, a 23-year-old Dalit Christian youth from Kottayam who had fallen in love with Neenu (21) was found dead in the Chaliyekkara river in Kollam. The two of them had decided to get married and had applied to get their marriage registered, despite Neenu’s family’s opposition due to the boy’s caste. In order to get Neenu to return home, a 13-member gang sent by Neenu’s family allegedly broke into Anish's house, abducted Kevin and held him hostage before allegedly murdering him while he attempted to escape.