Spirit mafias role fictitious: CBI officials

KOCHI: The alleged involvement of the spirit mafia in the custodial death of Sampath was the creation of top CBI officials, stated team members investigating the unnatural death of ASP Haridath.The two CBI officials - S Unnikrishnan and K K Rajan - submitted before the Central Administrative Tribunal  that the higher-ups in the CBI brought the spirit mafia into the picture to divert the case and save the two accused IPS officers.The documents in possession of Express reveal that the officers stated that some of the top CBI officials in Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi units forced Haridath to alter the case diary.According to the document, Haridath had pointed out in his two case diaries dated February 4, 2011, and March 5, 2011, submitted before Chief Judicial Magistrate, Ernakulam, that some of the officials in the department are spreading wrong news to divert the case. The case diary dated February 4, 2011, pointed out that “Haridath had stated elaborately about the threat and harassment the investigation team had to bear because of the high influence of the accused. He had also referred to the spreading of wrong news using some newspapers.”Similarly, the case diary dated March 5, 2011,  stated that “Haridath had pointed out the attempts made to tarnish the reputation of the investigation team by the CBI officials. They maliciously propagated that spirit and abkari mafia were behind Murukesan, the petitioner.” The application filed by Unnikrishan and Rajan stated that higher officials demanded Haridath on numerous occasions to hand over the case diary to them but he  refused it. It is also pointed out that many times a senior official in the CBI Thiruvananthapuram unit had leaked the departmental news to the local police and the accused IPS officer for assisting them in the case.The application also suggested that ever since the Supreme Court ordered in April, 2011, to appoint a Supervisory Officer in the case, the situation became more favourable to the corrupt CBI officials. “Even the statements were re-recorded and some of the witnesses were influenced to keep mum,” the application stated.