The Kerala High Court has taken a critical view of the police investigation in the Shuhaib murder case and sought to know why there was a delay in recovering the weapons used for the murder.
The court, while holding up a photograph of the slain youth, which was submitted by the petitioners, wondered how a man could be brutally hacked to death as in the case of Shuhaib.
The court was considering a petition field by the parents of Suhaib seeking a CBI probe into the murder.
In their petition, C. P. Mohammed and S. P. Raziya, the parents, submitted that a “killer gang of five belonging to the CPI(M)” was behind the murder.
The gang “terrorised the people in the scene exploding bombs and inflicted 41 stab injuries with deadly weapons such as big swords, knives and brutally killed Shuhaib and inflicted grievous injuries to two others,” they submitted.
Terming the attack an act of terror, an offence punishable under the Unlawful Activities(Prevention) Act (UAPA), the parents submitted that police did not invoke UAPA due to political intervention by the CPI(M).
It was on February 12 that Shuhaib was killed by a group of assailants.
According to the petitioners, it was reported that the District Superintendent of Police had complained about some police personnel in the investigation team leaking vital information to the accused and hence all the accused could not be arrested and weapons recovered.
The murder was the result of a larger conspiracy hatched by top CPI(M) leaders in Kannur and the police may not be able to conduct a free and fair investigation, they submitted.
Though the State Law Minister had earlier agreed to a CBI inquiry, the State government succumbed to pressure exerted by the Kannur district committee of the CPI(M) and later declined a CBI investigation in the case, they stated.
The petitioners submitted that the present investigation, which they said was controlled by the CPI(M) district committee, was an eyewash and the police have not turned against those who were involved in the larger conspiracy in the case.
According to the petitioners, the investigation was moving at a snail’s pace and the investigators did not take any serious steps to recover weapons used for the commission of offence. No significant measures were known to have been taken to arrest the others including the attackers and the conspirators, they submitted.
The court sought the views of the CBI in the case.
