KK Rama, widow of rebel Marxist leader TP Chandrasekharan of Onchiyam in Kerala’s Kozhikode district who was killed by a Marxist killer gang, will on Monday start an indefinite fast in front of the State Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram demanding a CBI probe into the conspiracy behind the murder in which top CPI(M) leadership had been allegedly involved.
Before leaving her village for Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday morning, Rama said she would not call off her fast till the Kerala Government issued the order to launch a CBI investigation into the conspiracy behind the murder even as the State Home Department had reportedly received legal advice that such a probe could be ordered.
The CPI(M) has been opposing the demand of Rama saying that it is illegal as the trial court had already passed its verdict on the murder case and had awarded punishment to those found guilty. A court in Kozhikode had on January 28 sentenced 12 accused found guilty including three prominent CPI(M) leaders to life imprisonment.
The State Cabinet is expected to take a decision on the matter at its meeting on Wednesday. However, Rama and her associates have devised a strategy by which fasts by supporters will be organized at various district headquarters to declare solidarity with her agitation if there is a situation where a Government decision is delayed.
The Director General of Prosecutions has reportedly advised the Government that there is nothing illegal about a CBI probe into the conspiracy behind the murder. Sources said that the Government could announce a CBI probe or invite the RMP, a party Chandrasekharan had formed in 2008 of which Rama is a senior leader, to discussions in the matter.
The RMP has decided that Rama will implead in the case when the Government approaches the High Court challenging the trial court's verdict. Rama has already signed the petition in this regard which seeks death for those who have already been convicted and questions the acquittal of 24 of the 36 accused.
Before leaving Kozhikode for Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday, Rama hoped that Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan, also a central committee member of the CPI(M), might visit her during her fast despite the pressures on him from the party. Contrary to his party's position, Achuthanandan had favoured a CBI probe into the murder.
Meanwhile, State CPI(M) secretary Pinarayi Vijayan alleged on Sunday that there was a conspiracy behind the transfer of nine of the 12 convicts in the Chandrasekharan murder case to the Central Prison at Viyyur, Thrissur from the Central Prison in Kannur. He wanted to know whether State Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala had played any role in that conspiracy.
CPI(M) Politbureau member Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and some other leaders had the other day visited the Viyyur jail alleging that the prison officials had tortured the transferred convicts brutally. The CPI(M) alleged that the convicts, who included a branch secretary of the party, were transferred to Viyyur for making their torture easier.
However, there are reports that the CPI(M) leaders had visited the convicts, who included the seven members of the killer gang that had hacked Chandrasekharan to death, to avoid a situation where they might reveal the alleged role of top CPI(M) leadership in the conspiracy that had led to the ghastly crime on the night of May 4, 2012.