Fazal murder case: Ex-cop disclosure lands CPM in soup

Kannur: CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has been put in the dock by a  police  official who investigated the murder of Mohammed Fazal, a  worker of the National Development Front,   at Thalassery in October, 2006.  Former DySP K. Radhakrishnan,  the first investigation official in the case, has alleged that Mr Kodiyeri,  who was the home minister then, had asked  him  to backtrack from the investigation  when the cops zeroed in on CPM leaders.    Thereafter, he was removed from the investigation and there was an attempt to murder him in December 2006. He was also suspended from service on baseless charges, he told DC.  

Mr Radhakrishnan also doubted a CPM role in the murders of  Valsaraja Kurup, a BJP worker,  and Panchara Shinil, a pro-CPM gangster who gave key information on the role of local CPM leaders in the murder. “It was my team that made a breakthrough on the 11th day of the investigation itself pointing a finger at the  CPM while the CPM was trying to put the blame on the RSS,” Mr Radhakrishnan said.  Even NDF leaders then believed that it was RSS men who executed the murder.

According to the CBI, which is investigating the case,  the murder was masterminded by CPM leaders Karayi Rajan and Karayi Chandrasekharan. The    CBI had also arrested eight persons in connection with the murder.  Mr Radhakrishnan also alleged that as he did not succumb to the CPM threats, about 60 CPM goons headed by a leader of Taliparamba attacked him  on December 15, 2006. Even the policemen of Taliparamba police station were warned against  reaching the spot within two hours, he said.  The party goons left him in a pool of blood.  It took more than two  hours for the then SP Mathew Polycarp to reach the spot and take him to the hospital.  The police team from the Taliparamba police station which was only 1 km away did not reach the spot for about two hours,  he said.

He  was unconscious for three days. With grievous injuries to his spinal cord,  he  has been  under treatment all these years.    “It took more than one-and-a-half years for me to get my memory right,”  he said.  “Even now I am struggling to track things from the past,” he added. He was also suspended from service after the attack, alleging immoral activities. Though he was honoured with an IPS,   the persecution is continuing, he alleged.