Kochi: In a dramatic twist to the two-decade-old Mohammed Fazal murder case in Thalassery, a blood-stained towel that mysteriously vanished from judicial custody has been recovered, paving the way for the trial before the Special CBI Court in Kochi to resume next month.

The blood-stained towel, a crucial piece of evidence in one of Kerala’s most politically sensitive murder cases, had gone missing from court custody in Kochi, raising serious concerns over the handling of evidence. It has now been found intact, removing the hurdle that had briefly stalled the trial.

The controversy surfaced after the Special CBI Court, which commenced trial proceedings in May, sought the physical evidence from the Ernakulam Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Court. Instead of the blood-stained towel, the trial court received an empty sealed envelope bearing a written inscription suggesting that the material had been destroyed or carried away by rodents.

Unconvinced by the explanation, the Special CBI Court took a serious view of the lapse and directed the CJM Court to conduct a detailed inquiry and submit a report. Following an extensive search within the court premises, the towel was recovered intact.

According to prosecution sources, the Special CBI Court has since been informed of the recovery, though the circumstances surrounding how the evidence went missing and where exactly it was found have not been disclosed.

“The CJM Court has reportedly already communicated the recovery of the missing evidence to the CBI Court, though we remain in the dark about the exact circumstances and location of its retrieval. It also raises questions about how carelessly such a crucial piece of evidence was handled,” a prosecution source said.

The blood-stained towel is central to the CBI’s prosecution case. According to the chargesheet submitted by the CBI, the accused deliberately planted the victim’s blood-stained towel near the residence of a local Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker in an attempt to mislead investigators, falsely implicate RSS activists and deliberately trigger communal and political tensions in Kannur.

Mohammed Fazal, 30, a newspaper distributor and an activist of the National Development Front (NDF), was hacked to death near a mosque in Thalassery in the early hours of October 22, 2006, during the final days of Ramadan. The NDF later merged with the now-banned Popular Front of India (PFI).

Before joining the NDF, Fazal had served as a CPM branch committee member and secretary of a local library. Investigators initially believed his recent shift in political allegiance had led to the killing.

However, the investigation soon became embroiled in allegations of political interference. After being investigated by the Thalassery police and later the Crime Branch, the case became the first political murder investigation in Kannur to be handed over to the CBI following a Kerala High Court order.

The transfer came after Fazal’s wife, Mariyu, moved the High Court alleging that the state police had deliberately derailed the investigation to shield influential political leaders.

In June 2012, the CBI filed its chargesheet arraigning eight CPM workers as accused persons. Among them are senior Kannur leaders Karayi Rajan and Karayi Chandrashekaran, whom the agency alleges were among the masterminds behind the conspiracy. The chargesheet also named notorious hitman ‘Kodi’ Suni, who was later convicted in the 2012 murder of Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) leader TP Chandrashekaran.

The case has witnessed several dramatic twists over the past two decades. In 2021, the Kerala High Court ordered a supplementary investigation after a petition filed by Fazal's brother highlighted a custodial confession made by RSS worker ‘Kuppi’ Subeesh, who had been detained in connection with an unrelated murder case.

Subeesh initially claimed that he and a group of RSS workers were responsible for hacking Fazal to death. However, he later retracted the confession, alleging that state police had tortured him into signing a fabricated statement. The confession briefly fuelled the CPM’s demand that the investigation be redirected away from its leaders.

Another major development came in May 2018 when former Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) K Radhakrishnan, one of the original investigating officers, publicly alleged that the late CPM leader and then Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan had abruptly removed him from the probe after his team’s investigation began pointing towards the involvement of local CPM cadres.

With the missing evidence now recovered, the Special CBI Court is scheduled to resume the trial against the eight accused in early August.