Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had a surprising change of heart in the Alan-Thaha case. After virtually rejecting the demand a day ago, the Chief Minister told the Assembly on Wednesday that he had formally written to union home minister Amit Shah asking that the National Investigation Agency to transfer the investigation and trial into the alleged Maoist links of the two CPM youths to the State police.
The NIA had taken over the case on December 28, 2019, and the opposition had, during an adjournment motion moved in the Assembly on February 4, asked the Chief Minister to get the case back to the state. Alan Shuhaib and Thaha Fazal, two young CPM followers, were booked under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act after they were found in what the police say “suspicious circumstances”.
It was Muslim League leader M K Muneer who asked the Chief Minister to invoke section 7(B) of the National Investigation Agency Act to get the case transferred back to the state for investigation and trial. But the Chief Minister did not seem interested.
Pinarayi Vijayan told Muneer that section 7(B) said that a case could be transferred only with the approval of the Centre. And he had laughed away the suggestion. “What the opposition is saying is that I should go before Amit Shah,” the Chief Minister had said, as though it was unthinkable.
Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala then sought to deflate Pinarayi's dismissive stand. “Didn't you recently meet Amit Shah with a large bouquet of flowers. As a chief minister you are obliged to meet the home minister of the country. Your ego and stubbornness should not stand in the way of your meeting the union home minister and requesting him to transfer the case back to the state,” Chennithala said.
The opposition raised the 'get the case back' demand after the Chief Minister said the NIA had taken over the case before the state's review mechanism could sit in judgment on the appropriateness of slapping the UAPA charge on Alan and Thaha. He also said the the NIA Act has provisions that allow the central agency to take over “scheduled offences” bypassing the State Government.
The opposition had argued that it was Pinarayi's police that made it easy for the NIA to take over the case. “The NIA just cannot come in and take over a case that is being probed by the state. It could pull the two boys into their custody only because cases were charged under UAPA, a scheduled offence,” Muneer had said.
