Kannur: The Congress on Friday wrote to the Chief Election Commissioner of India seeking a CBI probe into the Panoor bomb blast. The main opposition party has alleged that the explosives were made with the knowledge of the ruling party in an attempt to attack its activists on election day.
But the CPM refuted these allegations and claimed that the Congress has been politicising the blast to woo voters.
Panoor comes under the Vadakara Lok Sabha constituency in Kozhikode District. The blast took place on April 5 and it left one person dead and two others injured.
Acting Kerala Congress President M M Hassan in his letter to the CEC expressed doubts about the bomb blast. “As per reports, four CPM-DYFI activists have been arrested in the case and one CPM activist has died following the blast. There have been subsequent incidents of political violence that are directly connected to the explosion,” Hassan wrote.
“The Chief Minister has taken this episode very lightly. Contradicting CPM's claims, the police report states that these bombs were made in anticipation of the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls.
“We suspect that this (bomb making) was orchestrated by the CPM, to be used against the Congress supporters on the day of the polls to scare people away. Hence, we demand that this should be probed by a central agency preferably the CBI,” Hassan wrote.
Earlier, CPM state secretary M V Govindan stated that the party and its supporters did not have any role and that the DYFI (the party’s youth wing) was not a feeder organisation of the CPM. The Vadakara Lok Sabha constituency is witnessing a fight to the finish between the CPM and the Congress.
While the CPM has brought in its star candidate and former health minister K K Shailaja, the Congress has fielded youth icon and three-time sitting legislator Shafi Parambil.
(With IANS inputs)
