THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A Saifudeen Haji, vice-president of Kanthapuram A P Sunni faction's influential feeder organization Kerala Muslim Jamaath, has levelled a serious allegation against Keralam CM V D Satheesan, accusing him of sabotaging the Home Department's move to appoint a special public prosecutor in the K M Basheer accident- death case.
Saifudeen, who is also the director of Siraj daily owned by the AP faction where Basheer had served as Thiruvananthapuram bureau chief, said the state government had informed the High Court that they have in-principle appointed senior lawyer A Santosh Kumar as special public prosecutor. However, the move was later sabotaged by Satheesan and Chief Secretary Biswanath Sinha, he alleged.
Basheer was killed in the early hours of August 3, 2019 after being hit by a car driven by IAS officer Sriram Venkitaraman near Museum. The IAS officer is the lone accused in the case and the trial began on August 1.
As per Saifudeen, the government "in a deceptive and treacherous move" rejected the request for a special public prosecutor citing that incompetency of the public prosecutor, who was appearing in the case, could not be proved. He said the CM and the Chief Secretary kept Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala in dark and directly intervened for Sreeram.
"The state is denying basic legal rights a victim is entitled for by not appointing the special public prosecutor," he added.
The Siraj director, meanwhile, notably chose not to attribute the culpability to other ministers and UDF coalition partners and solely held the CM and the Chief Secretary responsible for the impasse.
""We do not hold any grudge against other coalition partners or ministers. We are conveying our strong conviction that the Chief Minister and the Chief Secretary had sabotaged the move to appoint the special prosecutor."
He also claimed that Chennithala himself had conveyed his helplessness and the Siraj management will now meet the UDF convenor and other UDF leaders.
"The act of the CM was not a collective decision of the party. Several senior party leaders told us that they were not informed about it."
Saifudeen also warned that if the government does not revoke its decision, it will have to face protests. "If they are of the mindset that justice will be given only if Basheer's wife, mother and his two children come to Thiruvananthapuram, then they are even ready for that," he warned.