A court in Kerala’s Kannur district on Friday remanded top CPI(M) leader P Jayarajan in judicial custody till March 11 after he surrendered before it following the rejection of his anticipatory bail application by the High Court the other day in the sensational case pertaining to the brutal murder of RSS leader Manoj of Elanthodath of Kathiroor, Kannur in 2014.
Jayarajan, whom the CBI had named as 25th accused in the case, was on Friday afternoon shifted to the Medical College Hospital at Pariyaram, Kannur from the Kannur central prison on the instruction of the doctors who examined him. He had been hospitalised for the past 23 days for treatment of heart problems.
A division bench of the Kerala High Court had on Thursday denied anticipatory bail to Jayarajan by accepting the arguments of the CBI which said he had masterminded Manoj’s murder. The court, which accepted the invoking of UAPA against him, said he deserved no special consideration because he was a politician. A lower court had earlier denied him bail three times.
Jayarajan, Kannur district secretary of the CPI(M), arrived at the District and Sessions Court, Thalassery on Friday morning from the Medical College Hospital in a mobile ICU just five minutes before the court proceedings began. He was accompanied by party leaders like State committee members MV Jayarajan and KK Ragesh and P Sathidevi, his sister.
“I have been trapped in this case as part of an RSS conspiracy to crush Marxist leaders. The imposition of charges under UAPA on me also is part of that conspiracy. This is part of a move to project the CPI(M) as a terror organisation. Unfortunately, the State Chief Minister is supportive of this move,” Jayarajan told newsmen before surrendering.
Jayarajan and other CPI(M) leaders alleged that the RSS conspiracy against him was hatched at a Sangh programme held in Kannur in November which was attended by Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat. “I don’t have to explain more about it. The manner in which the RSS had taken this up had already been reported in the media,” he said.
After he surrendered, Jayarajan’s lawyer prayed to the court that he be shifted to hospital by stating that he was undergoing treatment for heart problems but the judge, who remanded him in custody till March 11 since he had been booked under provisions of the UAPA, said that the prison authorities could take a decision on that.
The CBI has applied for Jayarajan’s custody for three days for questioning him. The court is expected to take up the plea on Monday. Sources said that the CBI had already collected details of Jayarajan’s health condition and was unlikely to show any haste in interrogating him. The agency had questioned him for seven hours in June last.
At the same time, the CPI(M)’s district leadership in Kannur, described as Kerala’s Marxist heartland and Marxist killing fields due to its history of murderous political violence, took care to ensure that the party workers did not react emotionally to the situation. leaders could be seen discouraging workers who tried to shout slogans outside the court when Jayarajan arrived there.
Manoj, Kannur district Sharirik Shikshan Pramukh of the RSS, was hacked to death by a Marxist killer gang on September 1, 2014 at Kathiroor in the district. The Kerala Police had probed the case initially but the State Government later handed over the investigation to the CBI following pressures from the BJP and RSS.
According to the CBI, it was Jayarajan’s personal enmity which had resulted in the murder of Manoj, who was a key accused in the case of the attempt on Jayarajan’s life on the Onam day of 1999. Jayarajan is also the 32nd accused in the case pertaining to the murder of Muslim league activist Abdul Shukoor of Ariyil in Kannur district in 2012.