The CBI has named P Jayarajan, district CPI(M) secretary in Kannur, Kerala as an accused in the case pertaining to the murder of senior RSS leader Manoj of Elanthodath from East Kathiroor in the district in September, 2014 prompting the Marxist party to allege RSS control over the investigating agency.
The agency on Thursday submitted a report in the Kannur District and Sessions Court in Thalassery naming Jayarajan as the 25th accused in the case for offences including conspiracy that came under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Jayarajan is the first senior CPI(M) leader in Kerala to be booked under UAPA.
The report said that first accused Vikraman and others had murdered Manoj as per instructions from Jayarajan. It also said that Jayarajan was behind the conspiracy to kill the RSS leader and it was he who had organized partymen to commit the crime. He was an accused in the case of murder of young Muslim league activist Abdul Shukoor of Ariyil, Kannur in 2012.
Jayarajan was named as an accused following his consistent refusal to appear for questioning in connection with the Manoj murder case. The CBI had asked Jayarajan to appear for questioning twice in the past three weeks but he had refused to comply with the instruction. It had questioned him for nearly seven hours on June 2, 2015 in Thiruvananthapuram.
When the CBI issued notice to him for appearing for questioning for a second time, Jayarajan approached the High Court for anticipatory bail but the plea was rejected on the basis of the CBI’s submission that he was not an accused. last week, he had approached a court in Thalassery with the same prayer but bail was not granted as CBI repeated its earlier stand.
Jayarajan is presently under treatment at the ICU of a Thalassery hospital. “Three days back, the CBI had said that Jayarajan was not an accused. What new evidence has it got in the past three days to make Jayarajan an accusedIJ Obviously, the CBI is acting under RSS orders,” alleged CPI(M) Politbureau member Pinarayi Vijayan.
According to the CPI(M), the naming of Jayarajan as an accused in the Manoj murder case is part of a strategy to keep him out of the political scene at a time when the State is preparing for the crucial Assembly polls. In this context, the party is alleging that the move against its heavyweight is part of a joint programme of the BJP and the Congress-led UDF.
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 in following pressures from the BJP and RSS for a probe into the conspiracy behind the murder.
According to the CBI, it was Jayarajan’s personal enmity towards Manoj which had resulted in the murder. Manoj was a key 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, district CPI(M) chief, the agency said.