Kasaragod: Kerala's leading ruling party, CPM, had gone on the back foot after the ghastly murder of two Youth Congress activists at Periya in Kasaragod in February 2019. After it emerged that the accused where from its ranks, the party apparently made a few bids to stonewall a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) but in vain. Now, as the central agency just commenced investigation into the double murder case on the orders of the Kerala High Court, the CPM has reportedly appointed a team of lawyers to tutor the accused on the right stance to be taken when the CBI team grills them.
The four lawyers were chosen after convening a meeting of a CPM-affiliated lawyers’ union in Kanhangad. They are set to visit the accused in jail.
The team of counsels also includes a CPM district secretariat member, a district committee member and a woman lawyer who was recently appointed to a special post.
There are 14 accused in the case and all of them are either local CPM leaders, activists or sympathisers. The three people who have been granted bail in the case are the party’s former area secretary, the local secretary and another accused.
Accused worried
The accused who are in the jail now are miffed with the party leadership after the CBI started its probe in the case recently, sources claimed.
The CPM local leadership had assured the worried accused that no matter what there will be no CBI investigation into the case and that the Crime Branch chargesheet had loopholes that will allow everyone to escape.
After the CBI investigation was confirmed, the accused had expressed their dissatisfaction with the party leadership to those who visited them in jail and they included their relatives.
CBI probe apace
The case is now being investigated by a team led by Deputy Superintendent of Police T P Ananthakrishnan under the supervision of CBI Superintendent Nandakumaran Nair.
The team, which recreated the murders using dummies, will begin the second phase of investigation soon. The CBI has set up a camp office at the Kasaragod government guest house.
