The sensational case pertaining to the brutal murder of rebel Marxist leader TP Chandrasekharan in Kerala’s Kozhikode district on May 4, 2012 in which a third of the 76 accused are senior CPI(M) leaders and workers is getting murkier by the day as witnesses are turning hostile on a daily basis as they reach the court.
As many as 34 of the 64 witnesses examined so far have turned hostile even as one witness has received death threat, presumably from the CPI(M). While the Government says the witnesses are turning hostile either because they are Marxist sympathizers or due to threats from the CPI(M), that party is alleging that the entire case has been built on false evidences and witnesses.
According to the Government, the development will not have any impact on the Prosecution’s case as almost all those who are witnesses to incidents related to the actual act of murder have already given strong statements in the court but legal experts point out that it has already cast suspicions on the credibility of the Kerala Police and its ability to build a foolproof case.
The trial in the case had started at the Special Additional Sessions Court at Eranhipalam, Kozhikode on February 11 and 64 witnesses have been brought before it for examination till Friday and 34 of them have turned hostile. Most of them have told the court that they had not given any statement against the accused as the police had mentioned.
Chandrasekharan, a former firebrand Marxist leader who floated his own party, RMP, with his associates after leaving the CPI(M) in 2008, was hacked to death allegedly by a Marxist killer gang at his own Onchiyam village in Kozhikode district on May 4 last. He was murdered just when the RMP was posing political challenges to the CPI(M) in Kozhikode.
The incident had set off a political storm in Kerala and had even led to the defeat of the CPI(M) candidate in a vigorously fought bypoll in June last. It also caused a re-escalation in the divisionist war in the Kerala CPI(M) with veteran leader VS Achuthanandan finding fault with the party and going public with his observations and allegations.
“As things stand, the development of so many witnesses turning hostile may not affect the Prosecution’s case. But it has already generated a general feeling that the police had not been impartial in its investigations and that the Congress-led Government was using the murder case as an opportunity to nail the CPI(M),” said a senior lawyer of the Kerala High Court.
While Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan of the Congress alleged that there were organised attempts (by the Marxists) to make witnesses turn hostile, Deputy Opposition leader in the State Assembly Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, also a CPI(M) Politbureau member, said the development revealed the sinister design of the Government to trap the CPI(M) and its leaders.
Meanwhile, Nityanandan of Kathiroor in Kannur district, 47th witness in the Chandrasekharan murder case, received threats to his life on Friday in the form of posters in front of his house. Nityanandan, a former Marxist who had joined the Congress in 2011, had told the police that he had seen Chandrasekharan’s killers entering a CPI(M) office after the murder.
The posters in front of his house in a CPI(M)-controlled ‘party village’ read: “We had warned you once. This is a Red Village. We will meet: Not in the court but in the village.” It is said that the threat has been issued in the context of his decision to stand by his earlier statement. The police said protection would be arranged for Nityanandan in the wake of the threat.