Taking exception to a plea for a CBI probe into the murder of eight BJP activists in Kerala, the State government submitted before the High Court on Monday that the CBI was a “caged parrot” at the hands of certain vested interests at the Centre which was making every attempt to create a “dent in the peaceful, secular and egalitarian system in the State.”
In an affidavit, the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government said it doubted that the filing of a writ petition for a CBI probe and the supporting stand of the Centre and the CBI before the High Court were part of a larger conspiracy to malign the State and its investigation officers. There was no basis in the allegation that political killings got escalated whenever the CPI(M) came to power. In fact, the filing of the petition was a continuation of a recent political attack by the BJP/RSS against the LDF government. The statistics published by the National Crime Records Bureau disproved the allegation of a spike in political murders. The allegation that the number of murders reported in Kannur district was relatively high was baseless. A comparative study showed that Kannur district witnessed fewer violent crimes than major cities of the country. The affidavit was filed in response to a writ petition filed by R.K. Premdas, secretary, Gopalan Adiyodi Vakkeel Smaraka Trust, Kannur. When the petition came up for hearing, Harin Raval, Supreme Court lawyer, appeared for the State government. The court posted the petition to November 13 for hearing.
