Court denies bail to Rasheed

KOCHI: DySP Abdul Rasheed, who was arrested by the CBI for criminal conspiracy in attacking Mathrubhumi reporter V B Unnithan, was denied bail by the additional sessions court here on Friday, ruling that granting bail would adversely affect the investigation.
After inspecting the case diary, the judge held that the DySP was present when the location to attack Unnithan was finalized.Moreover, he had close links with Container Santhosh, who was alleged to have a criminal background, the judge observed.
Criticizing the nexus between criminals and senior police officials, the judge observed that no responsible police officer could maintain close links with people with criminal background.
The CBI submitted to the court that Rasheed didn't cooperate with the probe while in custody but chose to pretend to be ill. The court accepted CBI's argument that bail shouldn't be granted as more evidence in the case was yet to be unearthed. Further, the court dismissed Rasheed's counsel's argument that his arrest was made without enough evidence against him.
Santhosh had earlier revealed that two DySPs, Rasheed and Santhosh Nair, had asked him to engage the gang that attacked Unnithan in 2010 while the scribe was returning home after work at night. An investigation conducted by the crime branch earlier had failed to detect the involvement of senior officials of the Kerala police. The ongoing probe by the CBI had revealed that the attack was part of a conspiracy hatched by some senior cops who employed local goons for the job.
On Thursday, DySP M Santhosh Nair had filed a petition in the magistrate court here alleging that he was forced by DIG S Sreejith and SP Sam Christy Daniel to take full responsibility for the attack on the scribe.
The DIG and SP illegally detained him at the crime branch office at Kaloor here and offered to facilitate filing of a chargesheet laid with lighter accusations to facilitate his escape if he was willing to take up responsibility for the attack on the scribe, DySP Santhosh Nair alleged in a petition before the judicial first class magistrate court of Ernakulam.