The Congress-led ruling UDF in Kerala is now being accused of using its demand for a CBI probe into the alleged conspiracy behind the brutal murder of rebel Marxist leader TP Chandrasekharan of Onchiyam, Kozhikode merely as an election ploy to win votes in the context of the Central agency’s reassertion that it will not conduct the investigation.
The CBI headquarters have written to the Union Department of Personnel, citing its decision not to take up the probe as desired by the Kerala Government mainly on the ground that the Kerala Police had investigated the murder, trial was completed in the case and those found guilty were punished.
The agency’s decision has prompted KK Rama, widow of Chandrasekharan, and the Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) he had founded in 2008 to accuse the UDF Government of being insincere in its bid to rope in the CBI. They now believe that the Government had recommended a CBI probe only to win votes in the lok Sabha elections.
“It now seems that the talks of an unholy understanding between the CPI(M) (which allegedly planned the murder) and the UDF are true. The UDF did not want any serious probe to be conducted into the murder but it just wanted to win votes by creating an impression that it was committed to end the murderous politics of the CPI(M),” said an RMP leader.
The CBI had towards March end decided not to hold the probe, but the Kerala Government requested it to reconsider the decision in the context of “new evidences” like the reported links between accused CPI(M) leaders and gold smuggler Faiz Abdulkhader, coming up allegedly due to electoral apprehensions.
In the light of this, the CBI headquarters asked its Joint Director in Hyderabad for a preliminary inquiry report. The Joint Director reported that there was no evidence for any links between Faiz and Marxist leaders. According to him, a CBI probe exclusively into the alleged conspiracy was irrelevant as proper trial in the case had been held and the convicts were punished.
Public pressure had forced the UDF Government to announce handover of the probe into the conspiracy to the CBI on February 7 after Rama held an indefinite hunger strike at the gates of the State Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram. At that time, Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan also had supported Rama’s demand, though he later changed his stand on the rebel murder.
As a first step towards handing over the probe to the CBI, the Government constituted a special investigation team of the State police to look into the alleged conspiracy behind the murder involving top CPI(M) leaders. The SIT probe was based on a fresh FIR registered at the Edacheri police station in Kozhikode on a complaint lodged by Rama.
“The Government is claiming that the investigation by the SIT is still going on. But people like me doubt it. That investigation does not have any relevance now,” said the RMP leader. legal experts are of the opinion that no amount of governmental pressure is now going to make the CBI reconsider its decision and the only alternative is to approach the High Court.
A seven-man Marxist killer gang had hacked Chandrasekharan to death at Vallikkad near his village Onchiyam on the night of May 4, 2012. The trial court in Kozhikode had on January 28 sentenced 11 accused including three CPI(M) functionaries to life imprisonment and another to three-year jail term while acquitting 24 accused.
Despite the verdict, the RSP and the UDF said the murder could not have taken place without the involvement of top Marxist leaders. The UDF made the murder and its developments the main issue in Neyyattinkara by-election in 2012 in which Marxist turncoat R Selvaraj, Congress candidate, was elected.