Justice N.K. Balakrishnan on Friday recused himself from hearing the bail applications of the accused in T.P. Chandrashekharan murder case and Shukoor murder case. Instead, Justice S. Satheeshachandran will consider the cases.
CPM leader M.V. Jayarajan had alleged that justice will not be served if the bail applications in the two cases were heard by Justice N.K. Balakrishnan. When the cases came up for hearing, Justice Balakrishnan avoided the petition and asked the registry to post the cases before another bench.
The CPM pointed out that Justice N.K. Balakrishnan was the junior of C.K. Sreedharan who has been appointed as the special prosecutor in both the cases.
The court considered the petition filed by R.S. Sanal Kumar, junior accounts officer at the BSNL customer care center in the capital, who is an accused in the phone leaking case in connection with TPC murder
and the bail plea of T.V. Rajesh MLA, the 39th accused in the Shukoor murder case.
The court had earlier reserved its order on the bail applications of 12 CPM activists accused in the TPC murder. The order will be passed on Monday.