A court in Kerala’s Thalassery on Friday convicted nine CPI(M) workers for the murder of 32-year-old BJP worker in Muzhappilangad in 2005. The quantum of punishment is expected to be announced on Monday.
However, the Thalassery district sessions court acquitted one person in the murder case, which was seen as a fallout of an intense political rivalry between the CPI(M) and BJP in Kannur. Two other accused died during the course of the trial. The convicts were identified as TK Rajeesh, Manoraj Narayanan, NV Yagesh, K Shyamjith, Neyyoth Sajeevan, Prabhakaran, KV Padmanabhan, M Radhakrishnan and N Prakashan.
Special prosecutor Premarajan told reporters that the victim, E Sooraj, was hacked to death at around 8.40 am on August 7, 2005 by a group of assailants who arrived in an auto-rickshaw. “There were 12 accused in the case. The first accused Shamsudheen and 12th accused Raveendran, then CPI(M) area secretary, died during the course of trial. One person was acquitted and nine were found guilty,” he added.
“Sooraj was attacked using dangerous weapons such as swords, axes and machetes near the FCI godown at Muzhappilangad. There was an attempt on his life even before this, solely because he shifted his allegiance from CPI(M) to the BJP. The key conspirator in the case was seventh accused V Prabhakaran Master, the then Edakkad panchayat president of CPI(M). CPI(M) leaders Radhakrishnan and Padmanabhan, the eighth and ninth accused respectively, have also been found guilty of conspiracy, apart from murder,” said Premarajan.
{{/usCountry}}“Sooraj was attacked using dangerous weapons such as swords, axes and machetes near the FCI godown at Muzhappilangad. There was an attempt on his life even before this, solely because he shifted his allegiance from CPI(M) to the BJP. The key conspirator in the case was seventh accused V Prabhakaran Master, the then Edakkad panchayat president of CPI(M). CPI(M) leaders Radhakrishnan and Padmanabhan, the eighth and ninth accused respectively, have also been found guilty of conspiracy, apart from murder,” said Premarajan.
{{/usCountry}}Rajeesh was also convicted in the 2012 murder of Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) leader TP Chandrasekharan. Narayanan is the brother of PM Manoj, the current press secretary to chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan.