KOCHI: An IPS officer who retired from service on April 30 has been working as a security officer at a private company at an undisclosed destination to support his family. He had allegedly been suspended from service for four-and-a-half years, tortured mentally and physically and was denied retirement and pension benefits, and is forced to live in exile in a neighbouring state. Reason: he refused to accept the
narrative of the ruling party as the investigation officer in the Fazal murder case.
“They will kill me any time. I am prepared to accept my destiny. But I want to ensure the safety of my children before that,” K Radhakrishnan, who retired as the commandant of KAP fifth battalion, told TNIE.
Radhakrishnan said he was working as a security officer at a private company in a neighbouring state to earn a living. “My daughter, who is a research scholar has opted for part-time research as we cannot afford her hostel expenses. My son who is a postgraduate had to drop out of the civil service coaching course. I had to sell my family property to fight the case and my house was auctioned by the bank as I defaulted on loan repayment,” he said.
Radhakrishnan was serving as the DySP at the District Crime Records Bureau in Kannur when Mohammed Fazal, who left the CPM and joined NDF, was hacked to death by a gang on October 22, 2006. Kannur DIG Ananthakrishnan appointed Radhakrishnan as the investigating officer and constituted a 20-member team to probe the murder. An officer with an unblemished record, he had solved seven difficult cases.
“The very next day of Fazal murder, the CPM had held a protest meeting where area secretary Karayi Rajan named four RSS workers who, he claimed, were involved in the murder. I detained all of them, recorded their statements and tracked all their activities before and after the incident. On day 2, home minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan summoned me to Payyambalam Guest House and directed me to file
the chargesheet within seven days. As I was convinced that the RSS men were not involved in the murder, I released them which antagonised the CPM leadership,” said Radhakrishnan.
Meanwhile, Radhakrishnan traced the phone calls of 300 people in the locality. Kalesh, a close aide of Karayi Chandrasekharan, had called Karayi Rajan on his mobile phone at 3.45am on October 22, the time when Fazal was murdered. Calls were made to three hospitals in Thalassery from the office number of CPM Thalassery area committee minutes later.
“Two days later, the home minister again summoned me to Payyambalam Guest House and asked me what was my intention. He asked me to inform him before taking action against any party member. Subsequently, my team members turned hostile. Ten days later, I was removed from the investigation and the case was handed over to the crime branch,” he said.
Radhakrishnan said two key witnesses, who gave him crucial information regarding the murder of Fazal, were killed mysteriously. Valsaraja Kurup, a BJP leader, was hacked to death allegedly by the blade mafia while Panchara Shinil, a former member of CPM's action team, was found dead on the railway tracks in 2007.
The investigation was taken over by the CBI after Fazal’s wife Mariyu approached the Kerala High Court. The CBI had filed the chargesheet against eight CPM workers in 2012. Following a plea by Fazal’s brother based on the confession statement of RSS worker Subeesh E, the High Court had ordered CBI to carry out an additional investigation. The agency, however, rubbished the claims and filed the closure report recently.
On December 15, 2006, Radhakrishnan was brutally assaulted by a group of party workers. He suffered damage to the spine and had to spend one-and-a-half years in the hospital to recover. He was suspended on the charge of immoral trafficking. "There were three more attempts on my life after that," he said.
Radhakrishnan was suspended for the second time in 2016 when he was conferred IPS. He had to fight a four-and-a-half-year-long legal battle to get reinstated. He served as the KAP fifth battalion commandant for eight months but was served a memo for disciplinary action on April 29, 2021, a day ahead of his retirement, just to deny him retirement benefits. “The memo was served at 4.30 pm by a special messenger. Even my plea for professional pension was rejected,” he said.