Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan said here on Tuesday that the State government was open to a CBI investigation into the killing of the Revolutionary Marxist Party leader T.P. Chandrasekharan at Onchiyam last year.
Mr. Radhakrishnan, however, said the CBI would be called in only if the special investigation team gathered fresh evidence and the trial court suggested involving the Central agency. A CBI investigation was impossible at this stage as the trial was going on. Let the court decide after obtaining fresh evidence.
He was addressing a press conference at Kunnamangalam after reviewing the law-and-order situation in north Kerala. “We are not closing the issue. It was premature to say anything now,” the Minister said.
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He said the State police had investigated the case in a proper and successful manner. They had submitted a charge sheet against 76 persons. The sessions court was trying the case in compliance with the order of the Kerala High Court to complete the trial by July 31. He said there had been attempts to sabotage the case at every stage of investigation. Initially, an attempt was made to make people believe that the murder was linked to extremist activity. Then, doubts were cast on Mumbai industrialists. Even after the charge sheet had been submitted, 15 accused went to court to halt the trial. “But we saw to it that the case went on smoothly,” Mr. Radhakrishnan said.
He said 49 prosecution witnesses, even a civil police officer, out of the 118 persons so far examined turned hostile during trial. That showed that the investigation team did not fabricate evidence or witness. At the same time, the argument put forth by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) that it was not involved in the case fell flat.
Relying to questions, Mr. Radhakrishnan said that he had no differences of opinion with the Union Minister of State for Home Mullappally Ramachandran over a further investigation.
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Narath case
He said the Union Ministry of Home Affairs had been informed about the seizure of arms at Narath in Kannur district. Investigators would look into outfits in the guise of charitable societies giving arms training. However, the police would go by the book. The incidents of stray dogs getting slaughtered were only a symptom. He said the government would work out a package for Adivasis in the wake of threats that Maoists were attempting to exploit them in the tri-junction of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.