Three decades after nine men, including four CPM workers, were falsely implicated in the murder of BJP worker Mannamkulam Sunil at Thozhiyur in Thrissur district, the Kerala government has ordered a compensation of ₹5 lakh each to the petitioners.

The government has issued the order for compensation for the previously accused persons based on a High Court judgement in March 2025. It was ordered that the government should take a decision on the recommendation made by the investigating officer to grant adequate compensation to the petitioners for falsely implicating them in the crime and to take appropriate action against the officers.

The government will not pay them directly like it had done in the case of Nambi Narayanan, former ISRO scientist, who won a Supreme Court order for compensation after he was wrongly arraigned in an espionage case. The Home Department wants the officers found responsible for the false case to pay. The order says that the amount shall be paid from the account of the state police chief and then shall be recouped from the officers.

The government has also ordered disciplinary action against the then investigation officer, his immediate superior and his immediate subordinate along with initiation of criminal proceedings for their roles in fabricating evidence and wrongful prosecution. It also lays down orders for those in service and those who have retired. The officers who are in service will be suspended with immediate effect and if they have retired, they will have to forfeit their pension.

A departmental probe also revealed that the police officials responsible destroyed files soon after the accused were acquitted. The Home Department has found out that there was a deliberate and biased conspiracy to falsely implicate the applicants by the cops of Guruvayur Police Station, with the intention of shielding the actual culprits. "The destruction of case files immediately after the acquittal of the petitioners highlights the highhandedness and complicity of the police officials and the investigating team. This raises serious concerns about the integrity of the criminal justice system," the order notes.

The case dates back to December 1994 when BJP worker Sunil was hacked to death in his house and the assailants chopped the hand of his brother Subrahamaniyam. Guruvayur police, who investigated the murder, arrested nine men. It included CPM workers and Congress dissidents. According to the police, a CPM sympathiser named Kanimangalam Joy, was allegedly assaulted by RSS workers at Guruvayur West Nada a day before Sunil's murder. The police filed in the charge sheet that the accused were under the impression that those responsible for assault on Joy were hiding in Sunil's house and they attacked Sunil and eventually he was killed.

There were nine accused in the case. Thrissur Additional Sessions Court convicted the accused and sentenced them to undergo life imprisonment. The accused number 7, 8 and 9 (Aboobaker, James and Jayson) were acquitted. The third accused in the case, Shaji, was declared absconding. The sixth accused Subrahmanian died pending trial. The accused, 1, 2, 4 and 5 ( Biju, Rafeeq, Baburajan and Haridasan) challenged the conviction in the High Court. They were acquitted for want of evidence in 1998.

After the acquittal, Baburajan, Biju and Rafeeq again moved the High Court demanding further investigation in Sunil murder case and in two other crimes registered at Mathilakam (Rajiv murder) and Vadanapally (Santosh murder) in 1995 and 1996 respectively. They sought a compensation of ₹50 lakh for the damages due to wrongful prosecution and conviction. In August 2024, the DySP-2, Crime Branch, Thrissur, filed a report based on reinvestigation and stated that the previously accused people were not the real culprits and the crime was actually committed by a Muslim fundamental group named  Jm-Iyathul Ihsaniya. Nine members of the group were arraigned as the accused.

A special investigation team was formed by the Crime Branch to probe the murders of Rajiv and Santosh. In 2017, Sunil murder case was also handed over to the team. The probe team got a statement and evidence proving the involvement of Jm-Iyathul Ihsaniya in the Sunil murder case. The first arrest was in 2019 when Moynudeen, the 6th accused in the case, was held.