Kannur: The Taliparamba Additional Sessions Court on Friday acquitted four CPM workers accused in the 2016 bomb attack case involving an alleged attempt to kill a police inspector and a sub-inspector by hurling country bombs at their residential quarters in Payyannur.

Taliparamba Additional Sessions Judge K N Prashanth acquitted C Shijil (35) of Kandankali, T C V Nandakumar (35) and K Vikas (32) of Vellur and K Ranjith (37) of Annoor, all natives of the Payyannur region.

In the judgment, the court observed that the investigation had failed to establish the involvement of the accused in the attack beyond a reasonable doubt.

The court also noted that the lone independent witness examined by the prosecution was a BJP-RSS worker and held that the testimony could not be treated as wholly reliable.

The case pertains to an attack that took place around 1.40 am on January 16, 2016, when bombs were hurled at the police quarters where the then Payyannur Inspector P K Mani and sub-inspector Vipin Kumar were residing.

According to the prosecution, Inspector Mani was staying on the ground floor of the quarters, while SI Vipin Kumar lived upstairs with his family. Vipin Kumar’s wife and their two daughters, then eight-year-old Ananya and three-year-old Ammu, were inside the quarters at the time of the attack.

The explosion caused extensive damage to the doors, walls and closet of the residential quarters.

The prosecution alleged that the four accused had arrived on two motorcycles and carried out the attack amid heightened tensions between the CPM and the police in Payyannur at the time.

Investigators had claimed that the bombing was linked to the ongoing hostility between sections of the CPM and the police force. Before the attack, posters targeting police officers, along with a funeral wreath and an anonymous death threat letter, had reportedly been placed outside the quarters.

The investigation was conducted under the supervision of Superintendent of Police N Unniraj, Harishankar, Sanjay Gurudin and K P Philip. The probe teams led by then Taliparamba DySP A Suresh Babu and Narcotics Cell DySP V N Viswanathan had arrested the accused after investigation.

Advocate Vineesh appeared for the accused.

One of the acquitted accused, Nandakumar, is currently serving a 10-year rigorous imprisonment sentence for throwing a bomb at a police party on August 1, 2012, during a protest against the arrest of CPM strongman P Jayarajan in the Ariyil Shukoor murder case. Nandakumar and Payyannur councillor-elect V K Nishad (35) were sentenced in that case on November 25, 2025.