BJP man’s killing: Accused, kin charge CPM with betrayal

It is an often alleged that that the CPI(M) used to provide the police with lists of accused of its own choice and that the police used make arrests as per such lists in cases of political murders in Kerala, especially in Kannur and Kozhikode districts. However, persons trapped in such a case have now turned against the CPI(M) by revealing the ‘truth’ and thus pushing it into a crisis.

Close on the heels of the rejection by a court on Wednesday of the pleas of six accused in the case pertaining to the murder of BJP-BMS activist CT Manoj alias Payyoli Manoj (40) for subjecting them to polygraph test, first accused Puthiyottil Ajith Kumar and his relatives charged the CPI(M) leadership with betraying him and others trapped in the case.

According to Ajith and the other accused, they had “confessed” to the crime of murdering Manoj as per the instruction of the CPI(M) leadership which had promised to get them released within three months. Manoj, secretary of the local unit of the BMS in Payyoli, Kozhikode, was attacked on the night of February 12 last. He succumbed to the hack injuries the following day.

Ajith and other accused in the case had prayed to the Additional Sessions Court, Kozhikode for permission to be subjected to polygraph test so that their innocence in the murder case could be established. With this, their counsel, arranged by the CPI(M), withdrew from the case. However, the court rejected their plea on Wednesday.

After the court rejected the pleas, a disappointed Ajith told newsmen that he had “confessed” to the crime after the party promised to protect him. ”The party had asked us to take up the responsibility for the murder by telling us that Circle Inspector Vinod Kumar, a former DYFI leader, would dilute the case and pave way for our release. But they cheated me,” he said.

On Thursday, Ajith’s wife and mother told the media that he was victims of the divisionism within the CPI(M) in Payyoli. “A local party leader had told Ajiyettan (Ajith) to surrender, telling him that CI Vinod Kumar would do whatever was needed to save them. But we were cheated despite the fact that we all belong to the CPI(M),” said Ajith’s wife Sajitha.

“They had told us that Ajiyettan would be out of the case within three months. We believed them because they were all people known to us and the Circle Inspector was a friend of the family. Those who had told us that he would be out of the case in three months have done nothing even after seven months,” she told the Press.

Statements of the neighbours also suggested that Ajith, a leader of the Motor Workers’ Union (CITU) of Payyoli and the only bread-earner of his family, could have been falsely implicated in the case. Neighbours and relatives termed as false the reports that the sword used for hacking Manoj was recovered in a raid from Ajith’s house.

The revelations by the accused and Ajith’s relatives have pushed the leadership of the CPI(M) into a crisis. According to sources, worries are mounting in the party that the disillusioned partymen trapped in the case could now reveal the identities of the real culprits and also those of the leaders who had asked them to surrender to the police.

“It is now almost clear that the CPI(M) leadership had pushed Ajith and others into a trap deliberately in order to protect some of the real culprits,” said a party worker belonging to the group opposed to the official leadership. “There are rumours that even the top State leadership of the party had information about the real culprits,” he said.