KASARAGOD: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday arrested five more men, all linked to the CPM, in connection with the murder of Youth Congress workers Kripesh, 19, and Sarath Lal P K, 24, on February 17, 2019.
The arrests ripped apart the investigation by the police as they had named three of these five accused as 'prosecution witnesses' in their chargesheet. The CBI identified the arrested persons as CPM Echiladukkam branch secretary Rajesh, 38, popularly known as Raju; Reji Varghese, 44, of Echiladukkam; Surendran, 47, alias Vishnu Sura, who is a friend of first accused A Peethambaran; Sastha Madhu, 40, paternal uncle of fifth accused Gijin; and Hariprasad M, 31, also from Echiladukkam and who recently got a job in CPM-run cooperative bank at Periya Bazaar.
They will be produced in the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in Ernakulam on Thursday, said CBI deputy superintendent of police (DySP) T P Ananthakrishnan. The officer said they were directly involved in the double murder and conspiracy.
"They arranged the weapons and vehicles and kept trailing the victims and communicated their whereabouts to other assailants," he said.
The Crime Branch had named CPM branch secretary Rajesh, Hariprasad and Reji Varghese as 'prosecution witness' in its chargesheet submitted in May 2019. Back then, Kripesh and Sarath Lal's families said they were baffled by the list of prosecution witnesses because 40% of the 229 persons named as prosecution witnesses were affiliated to the CPM or linked to the crime.
"They had no evidentiary value to help prosecute the accused. We stand vindicated today," said M K Baburaj, a lawyer and friend of Sarath Lal's father Sathyanarayanan.
Sources privy to the CBI investigation said the premier agency was likely to arrest five more persons before submitting its chargesheet.
The CBI took over the investigation on December 14 last year. The Crime Branch had earlier arrested 14 CPM supporters and members, including CPM leader and Kanhangad block panchayat president K Manikandan, in connection with the double murder. It also concluded that the CPM workers, led by the first accused Peethambaran, killed the two Youth Congress workers because of personal enmity.
Peethambaran, who was a member of CPM's local committee, was suspended from the party after he was arrested. However, the Kerala High Court on September 30, 2019, quashed the chargesheet and handed over the case to CBI. The High Court reasoned that the chargesheet of the Crime Branch was written solely based on the statements of the accused and it did not conduct forensic tests on the weapons allegedly used to kill Sarath Lal and Kripesh.
The High Court had also questioned why Surendran was not named an accused considering he had called Peethambaran at 7.36 pm on February 17, 2019, minutes before the two youths were hacked to death, said Baburaj. The Crime Branch had named Renjith as the 10th accused because his phone records showed that he had called the suspected assailants at the same time, he said.
The Crime Branch had also listed rods as weapons used to attack the two Youth Congress workers, but the postmortem report said their bodies did not have injuries from such weapons.
Yet, the LDF-led state government contested the High Court order and approached the Supreme Court but could not stop the CBI from taking over the case. In the process, the state government futilely burned around Rs 1 crore of the public money and held up the investigation for more than a year.
The CBI began the investigation by re-creating the crime scene at Kalliyot on December 14, 2020. On August 4, 2021, the High Court set a four-month ultimatum to the CBI to submit the chargesheet. DySP Ananthakrishnan said the CBI will try to submit the chargesheet before the deadline ends.
Turn of events
Feb 17, 2019: Youth Cong workers Sarath Lal P K and Kripesh hacked to death
Feb 19: Police arrest A Peethambaran, the main accused
Feb 21: Investigation handed over to Crime Branch
May 20: Crime Branch submits chargesheet, names 14 accused, all linked to CPM
Sept 30: HC quashes CB chargesheet, transfers case to CBI
Oct 26: State govt moves the division bench of HC against CBI probe
Oct 29: HC refuses to stay Single Bench order, but govt refuses to hand over case diary to CBI
Aug 25, 2020: Division bench upholds single bench order transferring probe to CBI
Sept 12: State govt moves SC against division bench order
Dec 1: Supreme Court dismisses state government’s petition
Dec 14: CBI begins investigation
Aug 5, 2021: HC directs CBI to submit chargesheet in four months
Dec 1, 2021: CBI arrests five persons