The CBI inquiry into the murder of NDF activist Mohammed Fasal has revealed that the previous CPM-led LDF government had misused the official machinery to sabotage the investigation of the case right from the beginning.
The CBI chargesheet against CPM leaders Karayi Chandrasekharan and Karayi Rajan in the case has now made the then Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and the CPM leadership answerable for the frequent shifting of investigating officials in the case.
The Government had been echoing the statement of CPM leadership of an RSS-link soon after the murder and they had strongly objected to a CBI probe by the High Court and the Supreme Court. The previous Government should also have to explain the reasons for its inaction in probing the brutal attack against DySP K Radhakrishnan, who initially probed the case and suspected the role of CPM men behind the murder.
CBI has now observed that the CPM district local leadership had then deliberately tried to foment a communal clash in the region to conceal the party’s role in the murder. Kodiyeri’s statement in his capacity as Home Minister that the NDF activist Fasal was killed by RSS activists had then appeared to be an indirect message to the investigators about what should be the course of investigation.
Soon after the murder in 2006, CPM local leadership organised a protest meeting on the same day with Karayi Chandrasekharan, Kodiyeri’s close aide, publicly listing out the names of RSS activists ‘involved’ in the murder. It also openly declared that CPM would take the protection of Muslim community from the attack of RSS and kicked off a widespread campaign that people had seen men in RSS outfits attacking Fasal. A statement given by DySP K Radhakrishnan to the CBI, says that he was shifted from the charge of investigation 12 days after the incident for fixing Karayi Chandrasekharan’s role in the murder ignoring ‘the RSS-link’ alleged by the then Home Minister Kodiyeri and CPM. Two months later, Radhakrishnan was brutally attacked by a group of ‘unidentified’ assailants. Later, Valsaraja Kurup, the advocate in Thalassery Bar who tipped the police about CPM connection in the murder, was also murdered in 2007.
Significantly, the LDF Government moved an appeal before the Division Bench When the High Court directed for a CBI probe in September 2008, considering the flaws in investigation based on the petition by Fasal’s wife. As the appeal was turned down, the Government went to Supreme Court. Both the courts strongly criticised the State’s stance against a fair probe in the case. Though the LDF government submitted an appeal to remove the Court’s observation, it was also turned down. Due to this, the investigation was handed over to CBI only in 2010.
Based on the recent developments in the CBI probe, Additional DGP (Intelligence) T P Senkumar has also recommended the State Government to direct a CBI probe into the attack against Radhakrishnan and the murder of Valsaraja Kurup.
The ADGP report said the attack on DySP Radhakrishnan was to seek revenge as he was the first investigating officer in the Fazal murder case who had fixed the responsibility on CPM.
When contacted K Radhakrishnan, now working as ACP, Narcotic Cell, Kozhikode, refused to comment on the issue. He, however, said, “I would stand by truth till my death and would never surrender to any kind of threat.”