Ramees K C, who was with Arjun Ayanki on the day the Ramanattukara incident happened, was grievously injured when his bike crashed into a car moving in front of him on July 22 and died in the hospital the very same day. Was Ramees's death an accident or was he the victim of a planned murder?
This was the question that animated the Assembly during the Zero Hour on Wednesday. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said it was an accident. "The bike hit the car from behind, " the chief minister said, citing police report. "Ramees was at the back and the car in front made an abrupt right turn. This caused Ramees to ram into the right side of the car, " he said. As if to once again emphasise it was an accident, the chief minister said: "Ramees had not worn an helmet either."
Pinarayi said the police report had said that the death had occurred as a consequence of the bike crashing into the car from behind.
The chief minister even wondered why Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, who raised the issue as an adjournment motion in the Assembly, could not comprehend such a plain fact.
Thiruvanchoor had said that the death was mysterious as Ramees was about to be questioned by the Customs on the Ramanattukara incident involving gold smuggling gangs and that led to the death of five of a gang in an accident.
Opposition Leader V D Satheesan had a counter to the chief minister's accident theory. "What if the car in front had purposefully swerved to the right? How can you rule out such a possibility, " he asked.
He said there were reasons why such an angle should be seriously probed. "Already, a witness in the case was abducted and subjected to torture. These criminal gangs will go to any extreme to keep the truth suppressed and save their gang members, " Satheesan said. Moreover, he said the gold smuggling gangs were controlled by Kodi Suni and gang, the killers of RMP leader T P Chandrasekharan who are now in jail.
He said the main accused in the Ramanattukara incident, Arjun Ayanki and Akash Thillenkery, were criminals who were worshipped as heroes within CPM circles.
He also said that the CPM was afraid of criminals like Kodi Suni, Arjun Ayanki and Akash Thillenkery. "You have used them to annihilate political opponents and now they are using the cover of the CPM to indulge in all sorts of criminal activities including extortion and murder, " Satheesan said.
He said one of the accused, Akash Thillenkery, had even threatened to reveal everything if there were attempts to implicate him. He said Akash was part of the gang that murdered Shuhaib, a Muslim League worker.
Muslim League leader P K Kunhalikutty had another question. "No one said the police had killed Ramees. We just said some anonymous person could have plotted the murder. Why is the chief minister so keen to protect this anonymous killer, " he said.
