KANNUR: After eight years, Karayi duo Rajan and Chandrasekharan, senior leaders of CPM in the district, returned to their native place of Thalassery on Friday to a rousing welcome from supporters.
Rajan and Chandrasekharan, the seventh and eighth accused, respectively, in the case of NDF worker Muhammad Fazal’s murder, was granted conditional bail by the High Court.
The CPM Thalassery area committee arranged a grand reception for the leaders and it was inaugurated by party district secretary M V Jayarajan, who said the party would do everything possible to prove the innocence of all accused.
It was around 4am on October 22, 2006 that Fazal was murdered by an unidentified gang near Saidarpalli in Thalassery. It was alleged that CPM was behind the murder as Fazal had left the party and joined NDF.
Since the local police and later crime branch couldn’t arrest the culprits, Mariyu, wife of Fazal, demanded a CBI investigation which was granted by the court. On July 6, 2010, CBI took over the probe and its chargesheet filed on June 12, 2012, arraigned Rajan and Chandrasekharan as accused.
Though the Karayis were arrested, the High Court had granted them bail on the condition that they would not leave Ernakulam district. Earlier this week, the High Court removed the bail condition that they should not leave Ernakulam, allowing them to return to Kannur.
Both Rajan and Chandrasekharan had fought the local body elections in 2015. Rajan was elected district panchayat president and Chandrasekharan to Thalassery municipality and became its chairman. Since the court had banned them from leaving Ernakulam district, they had to resign from their respective positions.
While inaugurating the reception meeting at Thalassery, M V Jayarajan said the party would go to any length to prove the innocence of all eight accused in the Fazal murder case.
“The relaxation in the bail conditions itself is a victory in the pursuit of justice,” said Jayarajan. “Innocent people had become accused because CBI had investigated the case. Further investigation becomes relevant only when more pieces of evidence and facts emerge. Otherwise, there is no relevance for a further investigation,” he said. The two were given reception at Kathirur CH Nagar and Thiruvangad Kuttimakkool, the birth places of Rajan and Chadrasekharan, respectively.