Youth Congress leader Nikhil Paily, who is accused in a murder case, has justified his alleged participation in UDF's campaign at bypoll-bound Puthuppally by saying his situation was similar to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's.
"If Pinarayi Vijayan, who is the first accused in the murder of Vadikkal Ramakrishnan, can attend the election convention of Jaick C Thomas, I can also attend. I'm also just a murder accused," Nikhil Paily wrote on his Facebook page.
Paily is accused in the murder of SFI activist Dheeraj Rajendran in Idukki in January last year. Paily and fellow accused Jerin Jojo, were arrested soon after Dheeraj was stabbed to death.
The Youth Congress leader's name has emerged again after the DYFI, the youth organisation of CPM, criticised his presence in Puthuppally. The DYFI has alleged that Congress assigned Paily for the campaign work in the constituency that goes to poll on September 5.
Paily, meanwhile, has justified his participation in Chandy Oommen's campaign. He said that besides Pinarayi, P Jayarajan and MM Mani, who also campaigned for LDF candidate Jaick, were accused of murders.
Paily has also posted an alleged accused list in the Vadikkal Ramakrishnan murder featuring Pinarayi's name. According to a source, the Congress leadership had advised Paily to stay away from the Puthuppally campaign.
Ramakrishnan was a local Jan Sangh leader in Thalassery, who was hacked in April 1969. He died a few days later and Pinarayi, who was the secretary of CPM's Thalassery mandalam back then, was allegedly listed as the first accused.
