Even as the Kerala High Court orally observed on Friday that there was now no bar on the CBI in arresting the two accused CPI(M) leaders of Thalassery in connection with the Mohammed Fazal murder case, the CBI told the court that the allegation that the murder was committed by RSS workers was not true.
Justice P.S. Gopinathan made the oral observation when an anticipatory bail petition filed by two local CPI (M) leaders and the accused in the murder case came up for hearing. The court orally said that there was no bar on the CBI in arresting the petitioners as the undertaking given by the CBI last time was that the petitioners would not be arrested till an affidavit was filed by the CBI before the High Court.
The murder took place on October 22, 2006, after Fazal gave up the CPI(M) membership and joined the National Development Front (NDF). The petitioners who moved the court were CPI(M) Kannur district secretariat member Karayi Rajan and Thiruvangad local committee secretary and Thalassery municipal councillor Karayi Chandrashekharan.
The CBI in the affidavit said that the motive behind the murder was the political animosity on account of Fazal falling out with the CPI(M) leaders and shifting his allegiance to the NDF.
The CBI said he had started drawing the young CPI(M) workers to the NDF and had convened a meeting of the NDF in a stronghold of the CPI(M), infuriating the CPI(M) local leaders.
The petitioner had hatched a conspiracy to eliminate Fazal by employing CPI(M) sympathisers and hardcore criminals. The petitioners were the prime conspirators in the murder, the affidavit said.
The CBI said the investigation and the evidence collected so far revealed the active involvement of the petitioners in the murder case. It was therefore essential to interrogate the petitioners to unearth the details of the other accused in the case. While opposing the plea of the petitioners to grant anticipatory bail, the CBI said if the petitioners were released on bail, it would impede the progress of the investigation.
The CBI also pointed out that when a single judge had ordered a CBI probe in the case, the previous CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) government took up the order with the Division Bench and later Supreme Court, in vain.
