The Kochi police on Tuesday told a court that two of the four young women arrested from a luxury apartment in the city for possessing and using cocaine had been selling narcotic substances including cocaine. The police, who had last week got all the five accused in the case in their custody for five days, also said that there were powerful forces behind the two girls.
In the application submitted before the Ernakulam Principal Sessions Court in Kochi seeking further custody of the two young women – designer Reshma Rangaswamy and assistant film director Blessy Sylvester, first and second accused respectively – the city police said that several people used to visit the flat where they stayed for buying drugs.
They said the investigation to find these buyers was progressing. According to the police, Reshma and Blessy had connections with top political personalities and this was a cause of worry for the investigators. However, the counsels for the accused opposed the police’s arguments by saying that they were trying to delay the case.
The police submitted the application for further custody of the two young women for three days when they produced all the five accused before the court at the end of the five days for which they had been given their custody. The other accused are young generation Malayalam film actor Shine Tom Chacko, fashion model Tinsy Babu and travel firm owner Sneha Babu.
The Kochi police had last weekend taken Reshma and Blessy to Goa for gathering evidence and for finding the source of the cocaine as Blessy had told the investigators that she had bought the drug from one Franko on a Goa beach during a New Year trip. However, they were taken back to Kochi on Monday as the efforts to find the source of cocaine in Goa met with failure.
In the custody application, the police had cited the details of the evidence-gathering exercise in Goa. They said that they had not been able to find Franko though they had taken the women to two beaches and the place where Blessy had stayed in Goa. In this context, the accused should be left in police custody for further investigations for three more days, the application said.
Shine and the four young women were arrested on January 31 from a luxury flat in Kadavanthra, Kochi, owned by controversial businessman Muhammad Nisham, currently behind the bars for trying to murder a security guard, for possessing and using cocaine. According to the police, all the five were on cocaine when they raided the apartment on the early morning of January 31.
The counsels for the accused opposed the police’s custody application by saying that the investigators were delaying the probe with the intention of sensationalizing the case. They also pointed out that the police had not produced sufficient reasons for their request for further custody of the accused.
Considering the submissions of the counsels for the accused, the court dismissed the police’s application for further custody and remanded all the five accused in judicial custody till February 24. The court also admitted the bail pleas of all the five accused.