Thiruvananthapuram: Congress presses for CBI probe

Thiruvananthapuram: Congress has stepped up the heat on the government to transfer investigation into the killings of two Youth Congress workers, Sarath Lal and Kripesh in Kasaragod, to the CBI.

Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala on Thursday shot off a letter to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan with the demand.

He alleged that local CPM legislator K. Kunhiraman was one of the conspirators.

Neither he spared his predecessor K. V. Kunhiraman, saying he was trying to hush up the case by bribing the family of local leader A. Peethambaran, now in police custody, not to talk against the party.

“Peethambaran took refuge in the party's area committee office after the brutal killings. His wife and daughter had claimed that he would not commit the crime without the knowledge of the party," he told a press conference.

“Parents of Sarath Lal and Kripesh, Sathya Narayanan and P. V. Krishnan, had repeatedly been emphasising his role. The former MLA visited Peethambaran's home and offered them money. It shows the party's nexus."

Mr Chennithala informed the media that it was the 29th political killing ever since Mr Vijayan assumed power and cast aspersions on the CPM that it had become a terror group and political murders cancer paining Kerala.

In the letter to Mr Vijayan, he alleged that even after several days since the twin murders had taken place, there had been no efforts to arrest the real culprits or seize weapons.

The former home minister also claimed that the police was groping in the dark over which the families have expressed their strong distress.

KPCC president Mullappally Ramachandran whose Jana Maha Yatra reached Kottayam on Thursday said he was unhappy with the way the investigation was progressing and called for a CBI probe.

He told reporters that a panel of lawyers would help the family members in the case.

V. T. Balram MLA had taken a dig at Mr Vijayan on Wednesday night on his Facebook page by citing that it is not puppetry that is required, but a foolproof investigation, after his picture with the robot, KP – BOT at the police headquarters went viral.