Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] Polit Bureau member Kodiyeri Balakrishnan met T.P. Chandrasekharan murder case convicts P.K. Kunhanandan and K.C. Ramachandran at the Central Jail here on February 10.
The visit of Mr. Balakrishnan, along with a few party functionaries, was apparently planned as a low-profile one to keep the media at bay. According to jail authorities, Mr. Balakrishnan and others spoke to Kunhanandan, CPI(M) Panur area committee member, and Ramachandran, CPI(M) Kunnummakkara local committee member, who are among the 12 accused sentenced to life imprisonment in the case.
Nine of the accused were shifted from the jail to the Viyyur Central Jail on January 30 in view of the security concerns here. The jail authorities said that Mr. Balakrishnan, the former Home Minister and serving Thalassery MLA, spent over 30 minutes at the jail. He had also spoken to other convicted inmates associated with the CPI(M).
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The visit of the senior CPI(M) leader to the jail to meet two convicted local party functionaries came in the wake of the probe started by a special investigation team headed by Additional Director General of Police N. Shanker Reddy on a fresh case registered by the Edachery police to unravel the larger conspiracy behind the murder of the Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) leader.
Mr. Balakrishnan’s visit to the Viyyur Central Jail on February 1 to meet the nine convicts in the case had drawn sharp reactions from United Democratic Front (UDF) and RMP leaders. They had alleged that the visit of the CPI(M) Polit Bureau member and other leaders to the jail vindicated the charge that the party had a role in the murder.