For Dinoop T T, a student of 6B, Mokeri East Upper Primary School, in 1999, the barbarous execution of his teacher K T Jayakrishnan still brings on the nightmares. It was Dinoop who had identified Pradeepan, whose name was not in the original list of the accused.
“Jayakrishnan Maash was teaching maths and he had written some equations on the black board around 10.30 am. Suddenly, five men appeared from behind the black board. We thought they had come to meet him. But he didn’t see them as he stood facing us. The gang started showering blows on him and then hacked him with long swords. He fell down but managed to get up and ran outside but six others barged in from another classroom and hacked him with swords,” recalls Dinoop, who can never forget his white shirt and blue shorts that got drenched in his teacher’s blood.
Dinoop, who stopped his studies after SSLC from a school in Panoor, now earns his livelihood as a daily wage worker in Panoor and Mokeri. His father’s friendship with Jayakrishnan was instrumental in his going to school.
Dinoop says he had to undergo protracted counselling to come out of the shock. Now an active RSS worker, Dinoop says, “I will reveal all the facts before any court, if a re-probe is conducted.”
Shinoop M V, then a 5th Standard student, was in a room near the 6B classroom and says he saw the killer gang enter through his class room.
“Jayakrishnan Maash didn’t teach me but I knew him intimately as he used to come frequently to my house as he had close relations with my father Sreedharan, an active BJP worker,” says Shinoop who later joined Rajiv Gandhi Memorial High School, Mokeri. “I faced threats from my classmates who were activists of SFI when I deposed before Thalassery Sessions Court in 2002. Most of the students left the school after the incident.”
Shinoop, who wound up studies after Class 12, is now engaged as a skilled worker laying tiles in Panoor.
Remisha and Punya, the other two students of 6B in 1999, who were witnesses before the court, got married and live in Panoor. They were not keen to talk as they feared it would disrupt their family life.