In a big blow to Kerala’s CPI(M), especially to its Kannur leadership and Marxist Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan who holds the Home portfolio, the High Court on Wednesday directed the CBI to probe the brutal murder of Youth Congress leader SP Shuhaib (29) by a Marxist killer gang at Mattannur in Kannur on February 12 for which 11 CPI(M) workers have already been arrested.
Justice B Kemal Pasha of the High Court ordered the CBI probe into the murder by rejecting all the arguments the Government put forward to oppose such an investigation and by observing that an impartial and independent investigation was necessary in the case. The order was issued on a petition filed by the parents of the slain Youth Congress leader seeking CBI investigation.
The judge directed the Kerala Police to hand over the case diary and all other material related to the case to the Thiruvananthapuram unit of the CBI which would be investigating the murder. Justice Pasha has also said that the CBI can hold the probe by registering a fresh case if it felt so. He directed the State police’s special investigation team to help the CBI in the probe.
Justice Pasha’s order transferring the case to the CBI came within four hours of the Chief Minister announcing in the State Assembly that a probe by a Central agency was not needed as 11 CPI(M) activists had already been arrested and the investigation by the State police was progressing well.
Observing that provisions of UAPA were applicable in the case as the killers had attacked Shuhaib after creating a terror atmosphere by exploding bombs, the court said the possibility of a conspiracy behind the murder could not be ruled out. There was substance in the argument that the accused had close connections with top Marxist leaders, it said.
The court said that those who had been arrested seemed to be pawns in the hands of some other forces that were not coming to light. Justice Pasha also observed that the political killings in Kannur, infamous for its history of political violence, would not stop till the conspiracies and conspirators behind such incidents were not brought to light.
“This is a God-given verdict,” said Shuhaib’s father CP Muhammad who had filed the petition seeking CBI probe jointly with his wife SP Razia while CPI(M)’s Kannur district secretary P Jayarajan, whom the Congress and the BJP accuse of being the chief architect of Kannur’s political violence, said, “Nobody should hope to scare us with a CBI probe.”
Shuhaib, Youth Congress’s block secretary in Mattannur, Kannur, was hacked to death by a gang of masked Marxist killers who came in a car on the night of February 12 while he was having tea along with two of his friends at a roadside restaurant at Edayannur, Mattannur. He had suffered 41 hack wounds, 31 of them in the legs.
When the plea of Shuhaib’s parents was taken up on Wednesday morning, KC Sohan, State Attorney representing the Government, had opposed it vehemently saying all the accused had been caught and there was no need of another probe. The Government also claimed that it was personal enmity that had led to Shuhaib’s killing but the judge rejected the argument.
The State Attorney even went to the extent of arguing that only a division bench could hear a petition seeking CBI probe as per High Court rules but Justice Pasha responded to it by asking whether the Government was saying that he should not consider the plea. In the morning itself, the CBI had expressed its readiness to take up the probe if the court issued a directive.
This is perhaps for the first time that a CBI probe has been ordered into a political killing in the State within a month of the incident, according to legal experts. It was also perhaps for the first time that the High Court had taken such a decision on the second day of considering a petition seeking directive for a CBI investigation, they said.
While the family of the slain Youth Congress leader expressed relief at the court order and the Congress party hailed it, the CPI(M) and the lDF Government responded rather acerbically to it. “The Government’s stand that there was no need of a CBI probe was based on its conviction. But the court may have its stand. I don’t know about it,” said Chief Minister Pinarayi.
“The right wing parties and the media supporting them should not hope to scare the CPI(M) using the CBI. An unholy partnership between the RSS and Congress is becoming obvious here,” said P Jayarajan. “We are not against CBI probe. It is up to the Government to decide whether it should go for appeal,” said State CPI(M) secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan.