In an alleged bid to divert public attention from the infamous bar bribery scandal involving the senior-most Minister in the State who was accused of taking `1 crore as bribe from bar owners, Kerala’s Congress-led UDF Government on Saturday announced further probe into the mysterious death of Sivagiri Mutt chief Swami Saswathikananda in 2002 in the context of new disclosures.
According to Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala, the decision to initiate a new investigation was taken on the basis of a report on the new disclosures made by certain persons on the death of the seer. The investigation will be carried out by the State police’s Crime Branch which had two years ago wanted to close the case after a decade-long probe.
Allegations have already come up that the follow-up probe was declared into the seer’s death in order to distract the public from the bar bribery scandal involving State Finance and law Minister KM Mani, which has pushed the UDF into credibility crisis after a court said the other day that available evidences suggested that Mani could have taken bribe from bar owners.
Chennithala told newsmen that Additional DGP (Crime Branch) S Ananthakrishnan would supervise the new investigation, which would be carried out by Superintendent of Police (CB) PK Madhu, who had examined the disclosures made by people like Sree Narayana Dharma Vedi leader Biju Ramesh and others connected to the Sree Narayana movement and the Swami.
Swami Saswathikananda was found dead - presumably by drowning - on July 1, 2002 in River Periyar near the Mutt-controlled Advaita Ashram in Aluva near Kochi after he went to the river to take a bath. Suspicions about the death had been aired by then itself but an investigation by the Crime Branch had concluded that the seer had drowned in the river.
Biju Ramesh, whistleblower in the bar bribery scandal, had ‘disclosed’ in the second week of October that a hired killer, Priyan, had murdered the seer at the behest of SNDP Yogam general secretary Vellappally Natesan following a dispute over the wealth of the SN movement’s institutions. Biju said Priyan himself had admitted this to him.
The allegation by Biju, a rival of Natesan, had triggered a controversy as it came close on the heels of Natesan indicating that the Yogam could enter into an alliance with the BJP and that it would lead the efforts to float an outfit of all the majority communities in the State. Natesan’s announcement was followed by various kinds of charges against him including bribery.
“Welcoming” the new probe into the seer’s death, Vellappally said, “let the probe take place. let the suspicions of all the doubters be removed.” He said the Government had no option but to declare the investigation as there were pressures on it from various quarters and that Home Minister Chennithala was being prodded from many sides.
Responding to the announcement of further probe into the Swami’s death, State CPI(M) secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said that the Government’s
move was intended at distracting the people from the bar bribery scandal which had made the position of the Government’s senior-most Minister totally untenable.
Kodiyeri, however, welcomed the probe. He also said that the lDF Opposition his party was leading would meet the State Governor in order to convince him of the details of the court order on the bar bribery scandal. He added that the lDF would launch intense agitations after the civic poll demanding Mani’s expulsion from the Cabinet.