KOZHIKODE: 156th witness C Vijayakumar defected in Koodathai massacre case. He is a lawyer and a member of the district committee of a pro-CPM lawyers' organization. Vijayakumar, a witness in the Roy Thomas murder case, had earlier testified that Jolly had shown the original will to him.

A witness had already defected in the case earlier. The 155th witness, CPM local leader Praveen Kumar, a native of Kattangal, defected in favor of the accused. Praveen is the former local committee secretary of Kozhikode Kattangal. He testified in court in favor of the first accused Jolly and the fourth accused Manoj Kumar in the case.