The acquittal of 20 accused in the case pertaining to the brutal murder of Marxist rebel TP Chandrasekharan of Onchiyam, Kozhikode due to the alleged failure of the police and prosecution in ensuring the credibility of the witnesses has led to intensification of the protracted group war in Kerala’s ruling Congress party.
The Congress’s ‘I’ group led by State president Ramesh Chennithala has already accused the police and the Home Department, ruled by Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan of the ‘A’ group headed by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, of failing to ensure the protection of the witnesses which had led to their turning hostile under alleged pressures from the CPI(M).
Former State Congress president K Muraleedharan and K Sudhakaran MP, top leaders of the ‘I’ group, on Thursday asked the Government to hand over the probe into the Chandrasekharan murder to the CBI by saying that the situation had led to the allegations that the Home Department and the CPI(M) had struck a deal over the case.
However, leaders of the ‘A’ group, including Chandy and Thiruvanchoor, tried to defend the Home Department, the police and the prosecution. Thiruvanchoor even went to the extent of stating that the current criticisms were pointless as CK Sreedharan, the main Prosecutor, was hailed as an expert lawyer belonging to the ‘I’ group.
A court in Kozhikode had in an interim order on Wednesday acquitted 20 accused, almost all of the them CPI(M) leaders and activists, for want of evidence after witnesses turned hostile en masse. Organizations like the BJP have alleged that the acquittal was proof of how the Congress and the Marxists used to strike deals over serious criminal cases.
“It seems that the witnesses had turned hostile due to the threats and pressures from the CPI(M). It was the responsibility of the police to ensure the protection of such witnesses. In this sense, there was failure on the part of the Home Department,” said Muraleedharan, adding that there should be a CBI probe as the police would not have the confidence to reinvestigate the case.
“It was a big mistake (of the prosecution) to list known CPI(M) workers as witnesses… Why were they made witnesses when there were no sufficient supplementary evidencesIJ The court’s verdict indicates the necessity of a CBI probe,” said Sudhakaran even as a section of the State Youth Congress also demanded a reinvestigation into the murder.
However, Chief Minister Chandy tried to defend the Home Department and the Prosecution by rejecting the criticisms. “It is a decision of the court. We cannot say the court had taken a wrong decision because it was against our expectations. We can make our evaluations after the final verdict comes,” Chandy said in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday.
Thiruvanchoor said he would not speak about prosecutors CK Sreedharan, “known as a prominent lawyer belonging to the ‘I’ group”, and KP Kumarankutty (of the RMP founded by the murdered rebel), adding that there had been no efforts from the part of the police to sabotage the investigation.
Chandrasekharan, a former leader of the CPI(M) in Onchiyam who left it in 2008 with his associates to launch own outfit, the Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP), was brutally hacked to death allegedly by a Marxist killer gang on the night of May 4, 2012 in his own village. The Congress and the UDF Government were quick to hold the Marxists responsible for the murder.