CBI arrests businessman

Mysterious death of former Malabar Cements official and his two sons

Businessman V.M. Radhakrishnan, right, after his arrest at the PWD rest house in Palakkad on Tuesday.

Sleuths of the Thiruvananthapuram unit of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday arrested V.M. Radhakrishnan of the Soorya business group in connection with the death of V. Saseendran, former company secretary of the Walayar-based Malabar Cements Limited (MCL), and his two teenaged sons.

After interrogating him for a couple of hours here, Radhakrishnan, third accused in the case, was taken to Thiruvananthapuram by car at 6 p.m. He is expected to be produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in Ernakulam on Wednesday. He is understood to have been arrested on the charge of abetting in the crime.

Radhakrishnan, who is facing several corruption charges in awarding contracts worth Rs.373 crore in MCL, was arrested by a team of officials headed by Nandakumar Nair, Additional Superintendent of Police, CBI, Thiruvananthapuram. The CBI had questioned him several times in Palakkad and Thiruvananthapuram earlier.

Saseendran and two of his sons were found dead at their residence near Kanjikode on January 24, 2011.

Earlier, the CBI had questioned former MCL Managing Director Sundara Moorthy, first accused, and P. Sooryanarayanan, former executive secretary of the company, second accused in the death case. Both are under suspension.

Several other MCL officials have also been questioned by the CBI.

The Kerala High Court had on February 17, 2011 ordered a CBI probe into the deaths. The order was passed by Justice Thomas P. Joseph while allowing a petition filed by Saseendran’s wife, Tina, and his father, Velayudhan. The court had said that the injuries found in the body of Saseendran were suspicious. The post-mortem revealed eight bruises in his body.

The CBI’s two-year-long investigation has found that Saseendran had been relentlessly fighting against corruption in MCL and that he had given evidence to the Vigilance in four cases of corruption involving Radhakrishnan. His wife had told the CBI and the High Court that Saseendran had been threatened for deposing against Radhakrishnan and some of his associates in MCL.