Malappuram: The trial in one of the most controversial and long-pending cases in Malappuram district, the Othayi Manaf murder case, will begin today at the Manjeri Additional District Court Two.
The first accused Malangadan Shafeeq and the third accused Malangadan Sharif, are nephews of Nilambur MLA P V Anvar.
MLA Anvar, who was the second accused in the case, had been acquitted by the Manjeri Additional District Sessions Court, along with 21 others after the first witness turned hostile. Anvar's father, P V Shoukathali, who was the seventh accused in the case, died before the submission of the charge sheet.
Manaf (29), an auto driver and an activist of the Youth League, was hacked to death in the Othayi market on April 13, 1995, in front of his father. The Edavanna Police submitted a 37-page charge sheet in the case on March 29, 2000.
Apart from the nephews of MLA Anvar, the 17th accused Kottappuram Muneeb, a native of Janathapadi in Nilambur and the 19th accused Elamaram Mapram Payyanad Thodika Kabeer alias Jabir, will appear in the court.
Former CBI Senior Special Prosecutor V N Anilkumar will appear as special prosecutor. The government did not take the initiative to appoint a special prosecutor even though there were two verdicts from the High Court of Kerala until Abdul Rasaq, the brother of Manaf, filed for contempt of court.
For 23 years since the crime, the police failed to arrest four of the accused, including the nephews of Anvar. On July 25, 2018, a Manjeri court ordered the police to nab them with the help of Interpol. Three of the accused, including the third accused Malangadan Sharif, surrendered following this verdict.
However, the police had to wait until June 24, 2020, to arrest Malangadan Shafeeq, ending a long wait of 25 years. Shafeeq was arrested from the Kozhikode International Airport when he landed from Sharjah on a charted flight during the Covid period.
The revision writ of Abdul Rasaq and the appeal of the state government against acquitting P V Anvar and 20 other accused is under consideration of the high court.
