People's Democracy

KERALA NEWSLETTER

E P Jayarajan will File

Fresh Petition in Ongole Court

N S Sajith

IN the backdrop of the revelations made by KPCC general secretary and MP, K Sudhakaran’s former aide Prashant Babu regarding the attempt to murder CPI(M) central committee member E P Jayarajan, a new appeal will be filed in a court in Ongole, Andhra Pradesh pleading the review of an order which exempted K Sudhakaran and M V Raghavan from the case. Jayarajan’s advocate Sudhakara Rao informed that a special appeal will be filed with the copies of revelations to substantiate the plea. The CPI(M) leader will also seek a re-investigation in the case on the basis of new revelations. Sudhakara Rao said that Prashant Babu’s revelations will definitely be a turning point in case. The conspirators will be exposed further, he added.

In the meanwhile, the police began its investigation against K Sudhakaran on the basis of his former aide’s revelations. They have collected the CD from the office of Kairali, a TV channel that had telecast the revelations. Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, home minister, has said that a special team will investigate the new turn of the events. The names of the team members will be announced in Thiruvananthapuram shortly, he told media persons in Kottayam.

Two police constables were also made available to provide security to Prashant Babu. But he informed that there is no need of any protection, Thiruvanchoor said. In the meanwhile K Sudhakran offered his cooperation to the investigation. E P Jayarajan welcomed the government’s decision to investigate the new developments. He hoped that the investigation would result in nabbing the real criminals. He warned that this should not be a mere face-saving exercise, he added.

SHOCKING

REVELATIONS

KPCC general secretary and MP K Sudhakaran's former aide and Kannur local Congress leader M Prashant Babu has revealed that a plot to kill CPI(M) central committee member E P Jayarajan was hatched in the residence of K Sudhakaran. Prashant Babu who was also a driver in Kannur DCC office made this revelation in Thalasseri on June 30. This revelation is significant in the context of continuing arrests of CPI(M) leaders on the basis of bogus statements of some criminals nabbed in the murder case of T P Chandrashekharan, leader of Revolutionary Marxist Party.

“A supari was given to a gang of Trippayar in Thrissur district but it was not successful. Then the assignment was given to another criminal gang. They were assigned to finish anyone among the three – CPI(M) state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, Polit Bureau member Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and E P Jayarajan”, said Prashant Babu. Babu had worked as the Congress bloc secretary and was also a councilor in Kannur Municipality.

E P Jayarajan survived the attempt on his life on April 12, 1995 near Chirala in Andhra Pradesh, while returning from New Delhi after attending the 15th Party Congress of CPI(M) in Chandigarh. E P Jayarajan was Kannur district secretary of the Party and a legislator at that time. A bullet pierced through the neck of Jayarajan and he had a miraculous escape. Dineshan and Shasi, the two paid criminals who had directly participated in the attack, were nabbed by the railway police on the same day. Sudhakaran was a legislator from Edakkad constituency at that time.

Prashanth Babu, who worked with Sudhakaran for four years, has said that Congress leaders had met frequently in Sudhakaran’s residence and in Kannur DCC office to hatch the conspiracy to kill E P Jayarajan and other leaders. The weapons were arranged from Kasargode. Since the information about the first conspiracy was leaked, it had failed. The second conspiracy was meticulous. This time the mission was given to Dineshan and Shashi. Weapons like pistols were also arranged to finish Jayarajan off, Prashant Babu said.

CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Kodiyeri Balakrishnan demanded the UDF government to register a case against K Sudhakaran on the basis of this revelation.

CPI(M) LEADER ARRESTED,

PROTESTS IN KOZHIKODE

In an ugly show of political vendetta, the Special Investigation Team in charge of investigating the T P Chandrashekharan murder case has arrested P Mohanan, member of CPI(M) Kozhikode district secretariat. Mohanan, senior leader of the district and former President of Kozhikode district Panchayat has been arrested when he was returning from the Vadakara, where a function organized by the party to pay homage to former district secretary M Dasan on his tenth death anniversary. Police chased the car, CPI (M) leaders travelled near Koyilandi, and taken Mohanan to the camp office of Special Investigation Team.

The arrest caused widespread protest all over the district. The police team brutally lathicharged the people gathered near the court in Vadakara that remanded him to police custody for seven days. The police has charged Mohanan under sections 302, 120B, 212 and 118 of the Indian Penal Code. There was good response from the people to the dawn-to-dusk bandh call given by CPI(M) district committee on June 30 to mark the protest against these vindictive arrests.

A section of media reported, quoting from some investigative officers who wished to remain unknown, that P Mohanan was part of the plot to kill T P Chandrashekharan, leader of Revolutionary Marxist Party, a splinter group of expelled CPI(M) workers.

In a strongly worded statement, the CPI(M) state secretariat has said that the arrest of P Mohanan has once again shown that the home department is using this case for political vendetta. The manner of the arrest has proven the hostile approach of the police. He was arrested dramatically, while returning from a Party program. So far in this case, CPI(M) leaders have appeared before the Special Investigation Team whenever it demanded. The Party has called upon the people of Kerala to protest against the unwarranted arrest of Mohanan and the attempt to witch hunt CPI(M).

NAKED DANCE OF EVIL,

BUT WHO CARES?

The selective amnesia of the media in Kerala is a hot subject in alternative media and social websites. The right wing media, which puts its weight on one and only subject of Chandrasekharan’s murder and further witchhunt of CPI(M) cadres, has never bothered about other serious issues in the state. The social websites like Facebook and Twitter have become a platform for sharp criticism of such right wing media. The irrational approach of a section OF media, which is eulogizing the UDF bosses for their attempts to implicate the CPI(M) leaders in Chandrasekharan murder case while at the same time totally ignoring the serious issues like price rise or criminalisation of society or failure of law and order are being severely criticised in the social websites.

The front pages of few newspapers on the day of anniversary of declaration of Emergency in India by Indira Gandhi, carried two shocking news from Thiruvananthapuram. The first was about a murder of nineteen year old girl in broad day light and the second was about destruction of a home by local Congress leaders in Aryanad, a small hamlet in Thruvananthapuram. Another incident took place in the same night in the neighbouring district Kollam, where a police constable was brutally killed by some unidentified assailants.

Though the three incidents reflect the utter failure of law and order in the state, the major media houses in the state have turned a blind eye on the matter. The frightening murder of Liji (19) took place in Varkala, a place which attracts thousands of foreign and domestic tourists every year. Liji, a sales girl in a fancy store, was hit by a motor cycle rider while eve teasing her in the evening. Before hitting her, the assailant tried to molest Liji and she had taken shelter in a house nearby. Assuming the assailant had gone, she left that home and walked towards her own home. But the worst thing was yet to come. The boy came in the bike and hit her from behind. Though the police had reached the spot, the assailant sped away. No arrest has been made so far. People under the banner of CPI(M) have protested in Varkala demanding the immediate arrest of the assailant.

The epitome of criminalisation of Congress politics has been exhibited in Aryanad, near Nedumangad in Thiruvananthapuram. Congress leader and bloc panchayat member, Prabhasudan, and his gang involved in real estate mafia destroyed a house of his neighbor Sanal Kumar the same night. A huge excavator rolled on the small house of Sanal kumar who denied Prabhasudan’s order to vacate his house. Prabhasudan, an influential Congress leader, was planning to attach the plots including that of Sanal Kumar. Prabhasudan and his gang brutally attacked Sanal kumar and his family before destroying the house.

The same night, a criminal gang killed a police constable, Manian Pillai, while he was checking their vehicle in Oyur in Kollam. In the attack by unidentified assailants, ASI Joy was also injured. The criminals stabbed the policemen while they were being questioned on the National Highway. The policemen were questioning the persons who came in an omni van, as they behaved suspiciously and answered contradictorily.

These three incidents are nothing but a reflection of the failure of maintaining law and order in the state. But the media has not taken up these issues with the importance it deserves. They are still eager to maintain the momentum of their notorious anti-CPI(M) posture for the last 50 odd days since the murder of Chandrashekharan.