Yuvamorcha leader Jayakrishnan Master’s murder to be re-probed

The decision of the Congress-led UDF Government in Kerala to reinvestigate the brutal murder of State Yuva Morcha vice-president KT Jayakrishnan in Kannur in 1999 has brought more worries to the CPI(M) in the context of the arrest and questioning of many of its leaders and workers over recent political killings.

The Government took the decision to reopen the case on the basis of the disclosure by TK Rajeesh, arrested last week for the May 4 murder of Marxist rebel TP Chandrasekharan of Onchiyam, Kozhikode, that those arrested for Jayakrishnan’s murder were not the actual members of the killer gang. Rajeesh himself was a member of that gang, according to him.

Kerala Director General of Police Jacob Punnoose has instructed Anup Kuruvila John, Superintendent of Police, Kannur and a member of the special investigation team looking into the Chandrasekharan murder, to discuss with experts the legal issues involved in reopening the Jayakrishnan murder case.

The decision to reinvestigate the Yuva Morcha leader’s murder followed a visit by Kausalya, his, mother, to Chief Minister Oommen Chandy the other day during which she submitted a memorandum to him requesting a CBI probe into the incident. Chandy had assured her that the Government would do everything it could to ensure justice.

Jayakrishnan, a primary school teacher at East Mokeri in Panur, Kannur, was hacked to death in a classroom in front of his students on December 1, 1999 by a gang of Marxist killers. The police had arrested seven Marxists for the murder, but six of them were not members of the killer gang, according to Rajeesh.

The District and Sessions Court in Kannur had sentenced six of the seven accused to death (one had committed suicide) but the High Court acquitted one of them for want of evidence while upholding the death sentence of others. The Supreme Court later acquitted four of them and commuted the death sentence of first accused Acharuparambath Pradeepan to life imprisonment.

Rajeesh, who was one of the seven members of the gang that killed Chandrasekharan, reportedly revealed that the police had arrested these seven persons as per a list provided to them by the CPI(M), an allegation raised regularly in connection with political killings in Kannur in which Marxists were involved.

Though the Fast Track Court in Thalassery, Kannur, the District and Sessions Court there and the High Court had recommended investigation into the conspiracy behind the murder, no attempt had ever been made in this direction. Rajeesh had given to the police the names of the 16 persons, including himself, who were the actual members of the killer gang.

Observers say that the decision for reinvestigating the Jayakrishnan murder would add to the worries of the CPI(M) in Kannur district at this juncture as several of its top leaders were under the police scanner in connection with political murders. Some have already been arrested and a hunt is still on for an area committee member in Panur over the Chandrasekharan murder.