CBI books P Jayarajan for P Abdul Shukoor murder

Kannur: CBI has framed Kannur CPM strongman P. Jayarajan in the 2012 murder of Muslim Students Federation leader P. Abdul Shukkoor. The charge-sheet submitted to the Thalassery District Sessions Court also makes T. V. Rajesh MLA as one of the conspirators.

On February 20, 2012, a group of men captured Shukoor, 20, an undergraduate student preparing for his final exams, and killed after an hour-long ‘trial’ in a paddy field in the party stronghold of Keezhara as scores of people looked on.

They were allegedly taking revenge on him saying he was among those who attacked the duo in Taliparamba, a charge his family denies. The charge-sheet says they executed it with proper planning, identifying the target and concealing weapons after the mission.

Contrary to the earlier police report that he knew about the plan but did not try to prevent it, the elite agency suggests Mr Jayarajan identified the target and ordered the killing.

Shukoor and four others, Sakariya, Abdul Salam, Ayoob and Haris, were detained first in a house where they took refuge and identified him and Sakariya for execution. During the ‘trial’ in the “kangaroo court”, they sent their photos on a mobile phone for confirmation. Sakaria managed to escape in a police vehicle as their attention turned to Shukkoor.

P. Davood, the elder brother of Shukkoor, said his friends and he had called many CPM leaders during these crucial hours, but none helped. “We also called the captors to spare my brother as he was not part of the gang that blocked the vehicle,” Mr Davood, a journalist with IUML mouthpiece Chandrika, told DC. “But they all fell on deaf ears. One of them even said he would have to pay the price for what he had done.”

Mr Jayarajan was at Taliparamba Cooperative Hospital after the attack on his car and CBI says his room was the “epicentre of conspiracy”.  

It cites his calls with local leaders to prove his involvement and says party leaders at different levels were part of the conspiracy. The Kerala High Court transferred the case to the central agency on a plea by the victim’s mother, PC Atiqa, in 2016, as the investigation made no headway. Justice B Kemal Pasha, who heard the case, expressed “shock” over the shoddy investigation by the state police and observed that “self-proclaimed goons” were ruling the system. He also observed that the police was trying to save the duo and it shocked the court’s conscience while the government (then run by the Congress party) maintained that the CPM was preventing proper investigation through muscle power in their area of dominance.