Kerala High Court quashes acquittal of 2 CPI(M) leaders in T P Chandrasekharan murder case, upholds life term to 10 convicts

Kerala High Court quashes acquittal of 2 CPI(M) leaders in T P Chandrasekharan murder case, upholds life term to 10 convicts

The Kerala High Court on Monday ratified the life imprisonment awarded to three CPI(M) leaders and seven party-hired gangsters found guilty in the sensational T P Chandrasekharan murder case of 2012. The high court also quashed the acquittal of two CPI(M) local leaders by a trial court.

The high court verdict came on petitions moved by the convicts challenging the trial court’s verdict. Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF)-backed MLA and widow of the slain Chandrasekharan, K K Rama, had also appealed to the court against the acquittal of 24 accused.

A division bench of Justice A K Jayasankaran Nambiar and Justice Kauser Edappagath ratified the acquittal of 22 accused by the trial court but quelled that of two CPI(M) leaders, K K Krishnan and Jyothi Babu, who were found to be involved in the conspiracy leading to the murder on May 4, 2012. The high court cancelled their bail and told them to turn up before it to pronounce the quantum of punishment.

Referring to the high court verdict, Rama told the media on Monday that the verdict once again brought out the role of the CPI(M) in the murder of Chandrasekharan, 51, a prominent leader of the rebel Marxist outfit Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) in the Communist stronghold Onchiyam in the Kozhikode district. Chandrasekharan was murdered for speaking out his opinion, and it is now clear that CPI(M) was behind his killing, she said.

A special court in Kozhikode in 2014 sentenced three CPI(M) leaders and a seven-member gang of killers to life imprisonment after they were found guilty in the murder case. The prosecution arraigned 36 accused and the court acquitted 24 of them, including CPI(M) Kozhikode district secretary P Mohanan. One of the accused CPI(M) leader C H Ashokan died during the trial. Of the 11 other accused, 10 got life terms, while one got three years of imprisonment.

The three CPI(M) leaders whose life sentences the high court has now ratified are former CPI(M) Kunnummakkara local committee member Manojan alias Trouser Manojan, former CPI(M) Panoor area committee member, former CPI(M) Kadungapoyil branch secretary P K Kunhanandan, who died in 2020 while serving the jail term.

The gruesome nature of the contract killing in which Chandrasekharan sustained 51 hack injuries on his face rocked Kerala and triggered widespread debate on political violence in the northern regions of the state. Unlike other political murders of the past in which political parties came up with proxy accused, the police found a way to bring to light the role of CPI(M) leaders, and it put the party on a sticky wicket.

The murder also saw fissures deepening in the party between two rival factions. The incumbent Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who was then the CPI(M) state secretary, had called Chandrasekharan a renegade while his senior rival V S Achuthanandan hailed the killed leader as a brave Communist.

Senior CPI(M) leader M M Mani in a public event said the party had a history of killing its enemies. Not so long after the murder, Mani detailed how the party had in the past prepared a list of rivals to be finished off and what weapons were used to kill them.

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