124 evidence items, including luxury Rado Watch, stolen from Ernakulam district court

KOCHI: Evidence items have been stolen from the Ernakulam District Court. A total of 124 evidence items (thondimuthal) went missing, including a luxury Rado watch worth lakhs. The stolen properties were under the consideration of the judicial first class magistrate court.

The stolen properties were related to cases spanning from 2016 to 2026. The junior superintendent informed the court about the theft in the strong room. Following the court's direction, the junior superintendent then filed a complaint with the Ernakulam Central Police. The police registered a case based on the complaint and initiated an investigation. There is information that 124 pieces of evidence (thondimuthal) from a single case have been stolen.

Evidence items have earlier gone missing from the Ernakulam District Court. In the past, crucial documents related to the Abhimanyu murder case disappeared, including 11 vital documents and the charge sheet. Following this incident, the high court ordered the reconstruction of the missing records using the copies available with the prosecution and the police.

Similarly, evidence had also gone missing in the Thalassery Fasal murder case. A blood-stained handkerchief, which was a critical piece of evidence in the Fasal murder case, vanished from the court premises. Court employees had even written ‘taken by a rat’ on the outside of the sealed cover that was supposed to contain the handkerchief. Later, however, the staff claimed that the evidence was recovered from the court itself.