The CBI on Tuesday arrested controversial industrialist VM Radhakrishnan, alias Chakku Radhakrishnan, in a case pertaining to the mysterious suicide of Saseendran (45), former company secretary of public sector Malabar Cements limited, and his sons Vivek (10) and Vyas (8) in January, 2011. Radhakrishnan is the third accused in the case.
Radhakrishnan, an industrialist alleged to have close connections with top leaders of both the Congress-led ruling UDF and CPI(M)-headed Opposition lDF in the State, was arrested from his residence at Palakkad on Tuesday for abetting the suicides.
The Thiruvananthapuram unit of the CBI took the industrialist to Kochi after the arrest and he was expected to be produced before a special CBI court on Wednesday. The CBI had questioned Radhakrishnan twice earlier and had filed an FIR against him at the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court, Ernakulam. It had also carried out raids at his offices.
Malabar Cements managing director Sundara Murthy is the first accused in the case while his personal assistant Suryanarayanan is the second accused. Radhakrishnan is an accused in several Vigilance cases related to the corruption in Malabar Cements. He had taken bail in one of these cases.
The bodies of Saseendran, and his two sons were found on January 24, 2011 while an inquiry was on into the corruption. There were allegations that Radhakrishnan had a key role in this corruption.
The Kerala High Court had on February 17, 2011 handed over the probe into the case related to the suicides to the CBI - though the agency was unwilling to take up the job - on the basis of a petition from Saseendran’s widow B Tina. Saseendran’s brother had approached the High court recently with a request to expedite the CBI probe.
The case was earlier probed by a special investigation team of the Kerala Police which told the High Court that it had not been able to find any reason for the suicide of Saseendran and his sons. The judge who heard Tina’s petition told the CBI that it had to take up the case as there was mystery in the deaths prima facie.
In her petition, Tina had said that Murthy, Suryanarayanan and Radhakrishnan, especially Radhakrishnan, used to threaten Saseendran saying that they would not let him and his family live in peace since he had taken up the corruption issue with then Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan.