For K K Rema, there was no surprise in the verdict. She was expecting this when 52 witnesses turned hostile in the case. Rema, widow of Revolutionary Marxist Party leader T P Chandrasekharan, still has hope in court and justice, though the trial court acquitted 20 of the 56 accused in the murder case of her husband. “I have hope that the other accused would be convicted as there is scientific evidence against them. There should be popular sentiments against the verdict as happened in the Best Bakery Case. Anyway, we will file an appeal against the verdict,” Rema said.
It was on September 12 that the Special Additional Sessions Court acquitted 20 accused of the charges, including two leaders of the CPI(M) and an office-bearer of the SFI. There are people in the Congress for whom the verdict turned out to be a disappointment. Obviously, the ‘I’ group loyalists felt embarrassed by the verdict. “Highly disappointing” was the response from MLA and AICC secretary V D Satheesan. “Investigation was carried out in a commendable way, but lapses were there in processing the case,” said Satheesan while KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala holds the view that the government should appeal against the verdict. MLA K Muraleedharan demanded a CBI enquiry in the murder. He said the verdict was a major setback for the Congress and blamed the Home Department for its failure to prevent witnesses from turning hostile.
Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan said: “It is not the Home Department or the police which issued the verdict.” But his words are not strong enough to silence the party rivals. “The verdict clearly reveals the tacit understanding between the government and the official faction of the CPI(M). The investigation went off track after a certain stage. The proper investigation ended with the arrest of P Mohanan, CPI(M) leader in Kozhikode. The CPI(M), in return, ended the agitation against the government in the solar scam and saved Oommen Chandy from resignation,” said an ‘I’ group leader on condition of anonymity.
The CPI(M), however, can heave a sigh of relief now. The party had to pay a heavy price for its alleged link in the murder, including the failure in the Neyyatinkara Assembly bypoll which took place within weeks after the murder. Politically, it helps the CPI(M) to cover up, to some extent, the damage caused by the murder, though ideologically it would take time for the party to wash away the sin.
The Congress has lost the political mileage which at one point seemed to extract out of the case in the impregnable strongholds of the CPI(M) in Malabar on the strength of the evidence gathered against several district-level leaders of the CPI(M). “The TP murder case was a great political advantage for the Congress after the Lavlin Case. But the verdict nullified the advantage,” said Satheesan.
-The Sunday Standard