Giving credence to allegations of an unholy understanding between the Marxist leadership and the ruling Congress in Kerala, police on Thursday arranged an occasion for CPI(M) leader P Mohanan, a key accused under judicial remand in a sensational murder case, to meet his wife, Marxist MlA KK lathika, and have food with her at a restaurant in Kozhikode.
The incident which occurred late Thursday morning has already set off a political storm in Kerala with a large section of Congress leaders, BJP and several other organisations and leading personalities accusing the Congress-led Government of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy of indulging in “adjustment politics” with the CPI(M), which heads the Opposition lDF.
The State Director General of Police suspended the three police officials who were escorting Mohanan, 14th accused in the sensational case pertaining to the brutal murder of Marxist rebel TP Chandrasekharan of Onchiyam on May 4, 2012, on the occasion but critics protested the action saying such a drama could not have been staged on the decision of three ordinary cops.
The courts have consistently refused bail to Mohanan for over the past one year. Mohanan, member of the CPI(M)’s Kozhikode district secretariat, had got the opportunity to meet his wife in a very private atmosphere when an Assistant Sub-Inspector of Police and two civil police officers took him to the MedicalCollege Hospital for some examinations.
The three police officers took Mohanan to a private room at a nearby restaurant about 11.00 am just when legislator lathika also reached there as though exact information had been passed on to her in advance, allegedly by the police. The husband and wife spent over 20 minutes in the restaurant before they came out to be filmed by waiting TV news channel crew.
“The police had given me no assistance,” said lathika later. “I reached the medical college hospital to meet him knowing that he was not well. It was at that time the police brought him to the restaurant,” said lathika after allegations were raised that she, as an MlA, had breached her oath by meeting a murder-accused in private though he was her husband.
This was not the first time allegations of such suspicious meetings had been leveled against Mohanan. There were reports recently that Faiz Abdul Khader, accused in a sensational gold-smuggling case, had reached the district prison in Kozhikode in the robes of an Arab to meet him with the alleged connivance of some members of the jail staff.
“The meeting between Mohanan and lathika is not a matter of simple violation of rule,” said State BJP general secretary K Surendran. “There has been high-level political interference and conspiracy behind this as the meeting took place when the trial in the case was at its final phase. This proves that the regular CPI(M)-Congress ‘encounters’ are fake,” said Surendran.
K Sudhakaran MP, an enemy of Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan in the Congress, said, “There has been a serious violation of rules. It points to an effort to derail the murder case. This cannot happen at the level of three ordinary policemen. There has been a well-thought out plan behind it,” he said.
However, the Home Minister refused to respect the criticisms. “As far as I know, this happened due to a failure on the part of the three police officers who had taken Mohanan to the hospital,” he said. Sprajan Kumar, City Police commissioner, Kozhikode, had been directed to look into the matter and report to the DGP.
Rumours have been rife for quite some time now that there is an understanding between the CPI(M) and the Chandy Government by which the latter would go soft on criminal cases against Marxist leaders and in return there would be no serious efforts to topple the Government. It was alleged that this pact had led to the recent acquittal of 20 accused in the same murder case.