In a big setback for Kerala’s CPI(M) and the lDF Government it heads, the CBI on Tuesday gave clear indications at the High Court about its readiness to probe all the political murders that had taken place in the State since the left came to power in May, 2016 even as the court asked the Government why so many political killings were taking place in Kannur district.
The court’s observation came when it was considering a petition filed by the Gopalan Adiyodi Vakil Memorial Trust of Thalassery in Kannur seeking direction to the Central agency to probe the seven cases of murder of eight persons belonging to RSS-BJP since lDF came to power in May, 2016.
A division bench headed by the Chief Justice directed the Advocate General, who appeared for the Government, to submit a detailed report by October 25 on the current situation with regard to investigation into the political murders and on whether a CBI investigation was needed in the cases. The court will consider the petition again on October 30.
The Advocate General told the bench that the cases need not be handed over to the Central agency as the State police had been holding investigation honestly and efficiently. He said political murders were not taking place frequently in Kannur as alleged by the petitioner. Even the families of those killed had not so far made any complaint against the police probe, he said.
Peace talks were being held in areas hit by political conflict and follow-up actions were being taken consistently, the Government submitted in the court. There were efforts to depict even cases of murders related to family feuds as incidents of political violence, the Advocate General claimed.
The CBI’s counsel and the Additional Solicitor General told the court that it could take appropriate decision on the petition and that the agency and the Central Government would abide by that decision. A CPI(M) source said he was surprised by the position of the CBI “which has so far been refusing to take up such cases citing inadequacy of staff and resources.”
Petitioner RK Premdas, secretary of the trust, alleged in the plea that all these murders were pre-planned and there were high-level political conspiracies behind each of them.
He said the actual culprits were not being brought before the law and that there had always been attempts to protect them as they belonged to a particular ruling party — the CPI(M).
The cases on which the petitioner wanted CBI probe pertained to the political murders taken place in the State between July 12, 2016 and July 29, 2017. local BMS leader CK Ramachandran was murdered in Payyannur, in Kannur on July 12, 2016 and local RSS leader Kallampally Rajesh was hacked to death at Sreekaryan, Thiruvananthapuram on July 29 last.
The other RSS-BJP workers killed allegedly by CPI(M) men as mentioned by the petitioner in Kannur were C Ramith in Pinarayi – native village of Marxist Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan – on October 12, 2016, Santhoshkumar in Dharmadom on January 17, 2017 and Biju on May 12 last in Payyannur.
The other cases in which probe has been sought pertained to the murder of Vimala Devi and her relative Radhakrishnan at Kanjikode in Palakkad district on December 28 last year and Raveendran Pillai of Kadakkal in Kollam district on February 2, 2017. The petitioner said that there had always been attempts to derail investigation into all these murders.