P Jayarajan, CPI(M)’s district secretary in Kannur, Kerala, whom the CBI had the other day named as an accused in the case pertaining to the murder of a senior RSS leader, on Friday sought anticipatory bail even as the Marxist party alleged RSS-Congress conspiracy behind the CBI move against its leader.
The CPI(M) leader, presently undergoing treatment at a hospital, filed his bail application before the Kannur District and Sessions Court, Thalassery. The court is likely to take up the plea on Saturday. Jayarajan was named as 25th accused in the case of the brutal murder of RSS leader Manoj of Elanthodath from Kathiroor, Kannur in September, 2014.
Jayarajan was charged with offences that came under Section 18 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. According to the CBI, Jayarajan was the source of the conspiracy behind the murder of Manoj. In the report it filed in the court, the agency had alleged that Jayarajan had close connection with Vikraman, the first accused.
In the bail plea, Jayarajan denied the CBI’s allegations saying that he was not close to Vikraman. He also said that Vikraman, who had no driving licence, had never been his driver. Stating that he had serious health problems, Jayarajan said in the application that he feared torture in custody once arrested.
The CBI had named Jayarajan as an accused in the case following his consistent refusal to appear before its officials for questioning. The agency, which had questioned him for nearly seven hours in June last year at Thiruvananthapuram, had asked him to appear before the investigators at its camp office in Thalassery on January 4.
However, Jayarajan skipped the interview and sought a week’s time citing health problems. The CBI issued notice to him again asking him to appear before it on January 12 but the CPI(M) leader chose not to comply with it and sought bail from the Thalassery court. The bail plea was rejected after the CBI said he had not yet been made an accused.
According to the CBI, it was Jayarajan’s personal enmity towards Manoj which had resulted in the murder. Manoj was the fifth accused in the case pertaining to the attempt on Jayarajan’s life on the Onam day of 1999. Also, the attempts of Manoj to woo Marxist party workers in Kannur into the RSS and BJP had enraged Jayarajan, the agency said.
Meanwhile, the CPI(M)’s State secretariat alleged that the CBI act of naming Jayarajan as an accused was the result of a conspiracy between the RSS and the ruling Congress party. The party said the CBI’s charge of conspiracy against Jayarajan was not maintainable as he was under the security cover provided by the State Government.
Manoj, Kannur district Sharirik Shikshan Pramukh of the RSS, was hacked to death by a Marxist killer gang on September 1, 2014 when he was proceeding from Kathiroor to Kannur in his Maruti Omni vehicle. The killers had dragged him out and hacked him to death after creating a terror scene by hurling country-made bombs at the vehicle.
The case was first investigated by a special team of the Crime Branch of the Kerala Police, which had named 18 Marxists as accused and had made UAPA applicable in the case. The Kerala Government later handed over the investigation to the CBI following pressures from the BJP and RSS for a probe into the conspiracy behind the murder.