Advocates long queue for Padma Kumar and family, surround accused in court

KOLLAM: Padma Kumar, his wife Anitha Kumari and daughter Anupama, the accused in the case of abducting a six-year-old girl from Oyoor, kept mum without giving accurate answers to many of the questions of the investigation team. The officials of the investigation team said that when interrogated separately, the three reiterated that they were not behind the abduction but when the evidence was produced, the three remained silent with their heads down.

The Kottarakkara Magistrate Court sent the accused to the custody of the investigation team for seven days yesterday. The interrogation is done by comparing the statements of the accused with the existing evidence. The accused will be taken to Pooyapally where the abduction took place, the routes they passed and the accused house in Chathanoor, where they kept the girl, today or tomorrow.

Six advocates for accused

Apart from advocate K Suganan and advocate Aji Mathew entrusted by the legal service authority, four more advocates came forward when Padma Kumar and his family were produced in the court yesterday.

Feni Balakrishnan, Saritha's first lawyer, and two other lawyers came to the court premises early in the morning claiming that they were the lawyers of Padma Kumar and his family. When the accused were produced in the court, many of them surrounded the accused to get their signatures for the vakkalath. When the court proceedings started, a lawyer named Krishna Kumar came forward with the argument that Padma Kumar’s relatives had given him the vakkalath.

The court directed that two persons from the Legal Services Authority have been allowed as there were no lawyers when the accused were produced last Saturday and if there is a dispute, they should talk to the accused and reach an agreement. In in the talks held outside the court room, the accused said the lawyers appointed by the legal service authority were enough. They had visited them in jail and collected information related to the case.