Leader of the Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan has ignited yet another row within the CPI(M) writing a letter to Chief Minister Oommen Chandy supporting K.K. Rema’s demand for a CBI inquiry into the larger conspiracy behind T.P. Chandrasekharan’s killing.
The letter became the focal point of discussion shortly after Ms. Rema called off her fast with Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala virtually releasing it to the media.
At a news conference here on Friday, Mr. Chennithala read out the contents of the letter written in Malayalam and said the government viewed its contents seriously. The government took an ‘in principle’ decision to refer the conspiracy angle of the Chandrasekharan murder case for a CBI inquiry keeping in view Mr. Achuthanandan’s letter as well, he said.
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However, replying to queries from reporters at Kottarakkara in Kollam where he reached leading his ‘Kerala Raksha Yatra,’ CPI(M) State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan denied the existence of such a letter. Responsible persons in Mr. Achuthanandan’s office, he said, had denied sending such a letter.
If the Leader of the Opposition prepared a formal letter, his private and press secretaries would be aware of it. Both these officials had denied having any such letter, he said.
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Mr. Vijayan, at the same time, said the Opposition Leader’s office was earlier manned by some mischief makers who were not there now. The CPI(M) had taken disciplinary action against them. Some of them were still in Thiruvananthapuram and in the wake of such reports in circulation, it should be probed whether they were in possession of the official letter heads of the Leader of the Opposition, he said.
Mr. Achuthanandan contradicted his party State secretary’s stand saying that he did not think that Mr. Vijayan would have said what had been attributed to him. The party, he said, was free to discuss his letter.
In his letter, written before the government took the decision to accept ‘in principle’ the demand for a CBI inquiry into the conspiracy angle of T.P. Chandrasekharan’s murder and Ms. Rema called off her fast, Mr. Achuthanandan said a probe of the kind sought by Ms. Rema was inevitable considering the killer gang’s links with Faiz, a smuggler who had international connections and suspected terror links. Taking exception to the State’s attitude, he pointed out that the government had done nothing despite Ms. Rema submitting a complaint to the government seeking a CBI inquiry into the conspiracy behind Chandrasekharan’s killing on January 10 itself and the prosecution informing the trial court that there would be a follow-up investigation. Under the circumstances, the government’s attitude to the fast was unacceptable, he said.