PALAKKAD: The Kerala High Court order to reinvestigate the deaths of the former company secretary of Malabar Cements Ltd (MCL), V Saseendran, 46, and his two sons Vivek, 11, and Vyas, 8, has given the CBI another opportunity to probe the sensational case and find convincing answers to questions raised by the court.
It was on January 24, 2011 that Saseendran and his two children were found hanging from their necks in their house in Kurudikkad, Pudussery. Saseendran was privy to the numerous controversial deals entered into by MCL as its internal auditor and he had disclosed it to Vigilance officials as a witness during interrogation. According to family members, he was even threatened. Finally, when the pressure became too much for him to bear, he finally put in his papers on September 6, 2010.
There were five Vigilance cases into deals entered by MCL at the time. The first one related to the leasing of a limestone mine in Tiruchi. The second concerned the purchase of fly ash from a firm in Thoothukudi. The third involved a contract to transport the fly ash. The fourth case looked into the purchase of linear plates from Gujarat-based AIA Engineering for MCL’s Cherthala plant and the fifth concerned the purchase of laminated bags from a Mumbai firm to pack cement.
In three of the cases the former chairman and managing director were named accused. Except in the case involving linear plates, a controversial contractor was also charged. Saseendran was a key witness in these cases. The charge sheets in three of the cases were submitted prior to his death and those for the others two posthumously, Vigilance officials said.
The corruption cases also need to be investigated. Saseendran weighed only 48kg and his eleven-year-old son was 32kg. Therefore, the possibility of the father lifting Vivek to hang him did not arise. Moreover, Vyas could not have stood there at the sight and would have obviously run away crying. The deaths should be investigated as a case of murder, said Joy Kaithrath, chairman of the State Human Rights Protection Centre.
Moreover, blood stains were found on the door and other spots. The tragedy was made chillier by the fact that there was an empty noose next to where the three were found hanging. The presence of workers laying telecom lines near the house and their disappearance later should also be probed, Joy said.
The case was first investigated by Kasaba police. It was my father Velayudhan Master and Saseendran’s wife Teena who filed a joint petition in the HC demanding a CBI investigation. The case was handed over to the investigating agency on February 25, 2011. Teena was employed as an auditor with The Metal Industries, Shoranur and it was when she returned home in the evening that she noticed the hanging bodies and alerted neighbours, said V Sanal Kumar, the brother of Saseendran.
Teena left for Coimbatore where she worked as an auditor for a Kerala-based share-broking firm. She subsequently developed ailments and died at the Kovai Medical Trust Hospital in Coimbatore on July 14, 2018, aged 52, said Sanal Kumar, who was the youngest of six children.
The death of one witness, Satheendra Kumar, who was the brother of an MCL employee, at the Ukadam bus stand in Coimbatore in a bus accident was also mysterious. Similarly, a few more witnesses had gone underground. All these facts need to be probed by the new team, Joy added.