CPM aimed to spark RSS-Islamists conflict: CBI

KOCHI, JUNE 13, 2012 : Marxists of Kannur had tried to create tension between the RSS and Islamists by deliberately putting the blame for the brutal killing of Muhammad Fazal, an activist of the NDF (presently Popular Front of India), on the Sangh, the CBI said in the chargesheet it filed on Tuesday in the case at the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in Ernakulam.

Listing CPI(M) leaders Karayi Rajan and Karayi Chandrasekharan of Kannur district as seventh and eighth accused respectively in the case, the CBI chargesheet described them as those who masterminded several political killings in Thalassery in the district, adding that they, however, had managed to avoid disclosure of their roles.

Kodi Suni (real name MK Sunilkumar), who led the gang of killers of Marxist rebel TP Chandrasekharan of Onchiyam, Kozhikode, was the first accused in the Fazal murder case as per the chargesheet. Fazal (35), an agent of Thejas newspaper run by the NDF, was hacked to death by a Marxist killer gang at Thalassery, Kannur in the early morning of October 22, 2006.

After the murder, the Marxists deliberately tried to pit the Islamist outfit and the RSS against each other by putting the blame for the murder on the Sangh through speeches at public meetings, the chargesheet said. That the culprits had deposited the blood-stained clothes after the murder at RSS centres was proof of this intent, it said.

Though there were a total of ten accused in the case, the chargesheet was against eight as two of the accused were yet to be identified. The CBI said that these two men could be identified only after questioning Rajan and Chandrasekharan who were in hiding. The Kannur CPI(M) had earlier said that it would not allow the CBI to arrest the duo.

The CBI said that the two Marxist leaders, charged with murder, had conspired to kill Fazal, a former DYFI worker, and engaged a gang of killers led by Kodi Suni, a CPI(M) sympathizer, for the “job”. All the members of the killer gang were workers or sympathizers of the party, the chargesheet said.

Fazal’s desertion from the DYFI several years ago and association with NDF newspaper Thejas had affected the circulation of CPI(M) organ Deshabhimani daily. This and an intention to create conflict between the NDF and RSS were said to be the reason for killing Fazal.

The CBI also said that the CPI(M) leaders had tried to derail the probe into the murder and to avoid a CBI probe by using the governmental power their party had wielded at that time. Karayi Rajan is a member of the Kannur district secretariat of the CPI(M) and Karayi Chandrasekharan is secretary of its local committee in Thiruvangad in the district.

The Kerala High Court had on March 11, 2008 ordered a CBI probe into the murder of Fazal on the basis of a petition filed by his widow Mariyu. The then LDF Government appealed against the single-judge bench’s verdict but a division bench upheld that order on September 4 that year. The Supreme Court also upheld the order later.