Justice S S Sateeshchandran vacated the stay on the order of Chief Judicial Magistrate granting CBI custody of Karayil Rajan and Karayil Chandrasekharan and directed him to take steps for production of the two before him and hand them over to the investigating agency.
The CJM order was stayed on a petition by the two accused, who had recently surrendered before the court in view of pending non-bailable warrants and were remanded to judicial custody.
The high court observed that their remand would not insulate them from resisting the CBI request for custody if it was found essential for further investigation in the case.
The petitioners had contended that the CJM cannot order CBI custody after the chargesheet was filed and taken cognisance (by him).
Karayil Rajan, the Kannur District Secretariat member of the CPIM, and Karayil Chandrasekaran, the Thiruvangad local committee member, had surrendered on June 22 and had been remanded to judicial custody till July 5.
On June 25, CBI filed a petition seeking their custody for 10 days.
The prosecution case was that a group of assailants had attacked Fazal, a former CPI(M) worker who switched over to the National Development Front, and killed him near Thalassery in Kannur District on October 22, 2006.
The conspiracy was hatched to do away with Fazal as he changed his allegiance from CPI(M) to NDF and attracted more Marxist workers to NDF, it was alleged by the prosecution.
