Taking exception to the plea of compensation by the legal heirs of Naxalite leader Varghese, who was killed in a fake encounter with the police in the Thirunelli forest in Wayanad in 1970, the LDF government informed the High Court on Friday that he was a notorious criminal.
A CBI Special Court had in 2010 awarded life imprisonment to K. Lakshmana, former Inspector General of Police and an accused in the case, and imposed a fine of Rs. 10,000 on him, for what it called “the brutal killing of Varghese.” The court had acquitted the former DGP P. Vijayan, another accused, for lack of evidence in the case.
The CBI took over the investigation on a directive from the High Court in 1999. The probe was ordered following the revelations by a former police constable P. Ramachandran Nair that he shot dead Varghese on the orders of then Superintendent of Police Vijayan and Deputy Superintendent of Police Lakshmana in 1970.
Nair died in November 2006. The appeal filed by Lakshmana against the confirmation of the Special Court verdict by the High Court is still pending before the Supreme Court. Lakshmana had later been given remission by the State.
In the affidavit, filed in response to a writ petition seeking compensation by the brothers and sisters of Varghese, the State pointed out the conviction by the lower court “is not a ground for seeking compensation.” It added that neither the CBI nor the Special Court “could find any reason to deny the fact that Varghese was a notorious criminal involved in murder and dacoity cases in the Wayanad area.”
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