CPM decided accused in Morcha leader’s murder: Killer

TK Rajeesh, arrested for the May 4 murder of Marxist rebel TP Chandrasekharan, has told the investigators that all the accused except one in the case pertaining to the brutal killing of Yuva Morcha leader KT Jayakrishnan in Kannur in 1999 were persons with no role in the incident. They were named accused by the police as per a list provided by the CPI(M), he has said.

The disclosure has brought confirmation to a fact – that the CPI(M) used to decide the accused in murder cases with its involvement  – that has been known for too long and disrepute to the police and Prosecution which had invariably been accused of conniving with Marxists in such cases in Kannur. It has also strengthened the call for re-investigation into the Morcha leader’s murder.

Rajeesh, who had coordinated the gang of hit-men who hacked Chandrasekharan to death in Onchiyam, Kozhikode, is said to have told the interrogators that only one of the seven accused, Acharuparambath Pradeepan, had participated in the killing of Jayakrishnan, a teacher at a primary school in Mokeri, Panur in Kannur district.

For the same reason, five of the accused were acquitted by the courts for want of evidence (one committed suicide). Rajeesh, who had participated in the killing of Jayakrishnan according to his own reported statement to the police the other day, also said that the murder was planned by a prominent district leader of the CPI(M).

The killer with close connections with CPI(M) leaders in Kannur is said to have revealed to the police the names and other details of the persons who had actually participated in Jayakrishnan’s killing. The Yuva Morcha leader was hacked and chopped to death in front of his students – all under 11 years of age – inside the classroom on the morning of December 1, 1999.

CPI(M)-watchers in Kannur have always alleged that the Marxists used to hand over a list of persons of their own choice of partymen and loyalists to the police to be named as accused after such killings. However, this is the first time that a confirmation has come for this practice from a person with connections to killing-planners.

The Fast Track Court in Thalassery had sentenced five of these accused, including Pradeepan, to death. That verdict was upheld by the District and Sessions Court in Kannur and the Kerala High Court. However, the Supreme Court, which considered the appeal of the accused, acquitted four of them while commuting the death sentence awarded to Pradeepan to life imprisonment.

Rajeesh, arrested for the murder of Chandrasekharan on Thursday, had told the police that he was involved in five murders, including that of Jayakrishnan, and several other violent incidents that had taken place in Kannur district. He had also said that he had participated in the Marxist rebel’s murder as per instructions from the CPI(M).

In the wake of the disclosure, the Kerala BJP renewed its call for reinvestigation into the murder and the conspiracy behind it. Stating that a section of the police was responsible for the derailing of political murder cases, former State BJP president PS Sreedharan Pillai said that not even a single policeman had been penalized for sabotaging such cases in the past several tears.

“In order to protect the credibility of the legal and political system, the Government should at least put the responsible police officials and Prosecution lawyers under suspension,” he said. There should be reinvestigations into the five murder cases in which Rajeesh was said to have been involved, Pillai added.

Kannur’s Congress MP K Sudhakaran called for a CBI probe into the killing of Jayakrishnan in the light of the new disclosures but State Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan said he could not say at the present juncture whether there should be such a probe. However, reinvestigation could be launched if it was needed, he said.