Kasaragod: A Kasaragod court on Wednesday fined 12 Youth Congress workers Rs 91,200 for a "violent" protest they took out against the government for not handing over the case diary of the Periya double murder case to the CBI despite two high court orders.
The chief judicial magistrate's court - I also detained them till the end of the day's proceedings. "That's the small price we have to pay to get justice for the families of Kripesh and Sarathlal," said Youth Congress district president B P Pradeep Kumar, who is among those found guilty on Wednesday.
The 12 Youth Congress workers were fined Rs 7,200 each by the court. They could arrange the money only by the evening.
The Youth Congress activists marched to the office of the District Crime Branch in Kasaragod on September 20, 2020 after it stonewalled five requests from the CBI to handover the case diary and other documents related to the case, Pradeep Kumar said.
"The police put up barricades in front of the District Police Chief's office and refused to allow us to go to the Crime Branch office. The protest turned violent, there was stone throwing and the police used water cannons and teargas shells to disperse us," he said. The beacon light of a police jeep also broke in the melee.
Youth Congress workers Kripesh and Sarathlal P K of Kalliyot near Periya were hacked to death by suspected CPM workers and local leaders on February 17, 2019.
Though their families immediately demanded an investigation by the CBI, the government handed over the case to the Crime Branch of Kerala Police.
On May 20, three months after the killings, Crime Branch DySP Pradeep Kumar submitted the charge sheet to Hosdurg First Class Magistrate Court, naming 14 accused, all of them leaders, members or workers of the CPM.
By then, Kripesh and Sarathlal's family had moved the high court demanding CBI investigation.
On September 20, 2019, the single bench of the high court quashed the charge sheet filed by the Crime Branch and directed the CBI to take over the case.
The high court tore apart the charge sheet saying it was based on the statements given by the main accused CPM local committee member A Peethambaran. The court also pulled up the Crime Branch for not conducting forensic tests on the weapons allegedly used in the crime.
Though the CBI, based on the court ruling, registered a case on October 23, 2019, the Crime Branch refused to hand over the case diary to the premier investigating agency.
The state government appealed against the single-bench order. After nearly a year, on August 25, 2020, the division bench of the Kerala High Court upheld the single bench order for CBI investigation but set aside the order quashing the charge sheet.
The government moved the Supreme Court to stonewall an investigation by the CBI. The apex court refused to stay the high court order.
By then, the CBI had written thrice to the then state police chief Loknath Behra and once each to the district police chief and the crime branch superintendent of police asking for the case diary.
But the Crime Branch had said it had sought permission from the "higher authorities" to hand over the case diary to the CBI.
The Youth Congress took out the protest march against this backdrop.
On December 1, 2020, the Supreme Court dismissed the special leave petition of the state government and asked the CBI to continue with the investigation.
The state government spent around Rs 90 lakh on lawyers to stop the CBI investigation.
On December 3, 2020, the Crime Branch handed over the case documents to the CBI.
Exactly a year later on December 3, 2021, the CBI submitted its charge sheet to the Ernakulam Chief Judicial Magistrate Court. It retained the 14 accused named by the Crime Branch, and named 10 new accused, including the former Udma MLA and CPM leader K V Kunhiraham and a CPM branch secretary. Of the 10 accused, it arrested five, all CPM grassroots workers. Kunhiraman was not among those arrested in the case.
