The ambience on the District and Sessions Court premises at Thalassery on Friday following Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] district secretary P. Jayarajan’s surrender in the E. Manoj murder case and his subsequent one-month remand handed by the judge stood in sharp contrast with the volatile situation that the district had witnessed in the aftermath of his arrest nearly four years ago.
Though party workers in large numbers were present on the court premises, when their leader facing conspiracy charges in the case being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the restraint on their part was explicit despite the charged scene when he reached the court in an ambulance in the morning to surrender.
Shukkoor case
His arrest in August 2012 in the Shukkoor murder case had triggered State-wide violence in which damage caused to properties were estimated at Rs.1.30 crore. His surrender before the court ended speculations ever since he was questioned by the CBI team in June last year. Manoj, an RSS worker, had been hacked to death near Kathirur on September 1, 2014. The CBI says that Vikraman, the prime accused in the case, was a close associate of Mr. Jayarajan and that the latter was the main conspirator.
While the CPI(M) portrayed the arraignment of Mr. Jayarajan in the case and the invocation of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act as an act of political vendetta by the Sangh Parivar using the CBI, his surrender was hailed as a victory of the rule of law by political rivals of the CPI(M).
BJP charge
Bharatiya Janata Party district president P. Sathyaprakash said in a statement that the surrender of the CPI(M) leader was a setback to the culture of political violence that the CPI(M) had been pursuing for decades. The surrender was a heavy blow to the “arrogance” of the CPI(M) which had been using its “finance and might” to escape from law, he added.
Rule of law
District Congress Committee president K. Surendran said that Mr. Jayarajan’s surrender raises the question as to the reasons why he took so much time for adhering to the rule of law.
If he was having serious physical ailment, he should be provided best treatment for that, he said adding that nobody should be deemed above law, the Congress leader said.
Unlike 2012 when there was violence after Jayarajan’s arrest, Kannur is peaceful this time
