The Kerala Police has tightened security in two districts and placed several areas under prohibitory orders as Judge R Narayana Pisharody of the special additional sessions court at Eranhipalam, Kozhikode is to pronounce on Wednesday the verdict in the sensational case pertaining to the brutal murder of rebel Marxist leader TP Chandrasekharan of Onchiyam.
The verdict will be equally crucial for the CPI(M), several leaders of which are accused in the case, and the Congress-led UDF Government which faces the Marxists' accusation that it had used the murder case to trap its leaders for political gains. The upcoming lok Sabha election makes the verdict all the more important for both sides.
Verdict is to be pronounced on the 36 accused most of whom are CPI(M) leaders, activists or sympathizers. There were a total of 76 accused in the initial stage of the case but the number came down to 36 after 22 were acquitted by the trial court, the trial of 15 was stayed by the High Court and one person died during the trial. Two of the accused are absconding.
Ahead of the pronouncement of the verdict, the police clamped prohibitory orders in Kozhikode city limits, Vadakara and Nadapuram in Kozhikode district and Chokli, Panur and Payyannur areas of Kannur. The police have also stepped up security in Mahe, an enclave of Pondicherry state trapped within Kerala territory.
The police tightened security in Kannur and Mahe though the murder was committed in Kozhikode district because most of the accused belonged to these two regions. At the same time, special arrangements have been made for the personal security of KK Rama, widow of Chandrasekharan. The trial in the case had ended over a month ago.
Though the CPI(M) has said that instructions have been issued to party cadres not to hold protest programmes if the verdict goes against its leaders and members and to avoid celebrations in case the verdict comes out in their favour. However, police officials indicated that they were not depending on this assurance.
Chandrasekharan (51), leader of the Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) which he and his associates formed in 2008 after leaving the CPI(M), was brutally hacked to death on the night of May 4, 2012 at Vallikkad near his native place Onchiyam in Kozhikode district by a seven-member CPI(M) gang allegedly on the instruction of the top leadership of the Marxist party.
The heinous murder also led to intensification of the faction war in the CPI(M) with its State secretary describing the slain rebel leader as Kulamkuthy (betrayer of the tribe) while party central committee member and Opposition leader in the State Assembly VS Achuthanandan praising him as a true communist. Apart from causing huge erosion of popularity for the CPI(M), the murder even contributed grossly to the humiliating defeat of the party candidate in the by-poll held in the Neyyattinkara Assembly constituency on June 2, 2012.