Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 5 The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has given its concluding report to the Kerala High Court stating that it was a CPM gang led by Kodi Suni who had killed the Islamic organization National Democratic Front (NDF) worker, Fazal at Thalassery. The CBI presented its report to the court on Friday and ruled out the involvement of the RSS in the murder.
The CBI report is a major setback to the ruling CPM as the party has been continuously maintaining that it was the RSS that was behind the murder.
Fazal, who was a newspaper vendor, had switched his political allegiance from the CPM to the NDF. He was found murdered in the early morning of October 22, 2006, at Saidarpalli in Thalassery in Kannur district. Thalassery is the hometown of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and politburo member and former state secretary, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and a CPM bastion.
The CBI investigated the case after Fazal's widow Mariyu petitioned the Kerala High Court requesting for a CBI probe which the court agreed to. The CBI arrested eight CPM workers including party senior leaders Karayi Rajan and Karayi Chandrashekharan.
After the CPM came to power in Kerala and Pinarayi Vijayan became the Chief Minister in May 2016, a video clip had come out in July 2017, in which an RSS activist Subheesh was seen claiming that it was the RSS who had done away with Fazal.
Subheesh however denied this and on the very next day after the video was circulated, he addressed a press conference stating that the police had tortured him after he was arrested in another murder case. He said the police threatened him to make him state that the RSS was behind the Fazal murder.
The confession of Subheesh and his later denial prompted the family members of Fazal to approach the Kerala High Court for a further investigation by the CBI. The court in August 2021, directed the CBI to investigate the matter.
The CBI questioned Subheesh and his friend Shinoj and the duo confessed that they were tortured by the Kerala police and forced to record a statement that they had murdered Fazal. The CBI found that Fazal was murdered at 3.30 a.m. but according to the statement of Subheesh in the video it was stated that the murder took place at 1.30 a.m.
The agency also found that there were discrepancies in the statement of Subheesh regarding the weapon used for the murder when compared to the wounds on the body of Fazal.
The CBI filed its report in the court stating that Subheesh was forced by the Kerala police to give false statements and said that the murder was committed by CPM cadres led by Kodi Suni. He is now in jail in the murder case of Revolutionary Marxist Party leader T.P. Chandrashekaran.
Meanwhile, CPM Kannur district secretary, M.V. Jayarajan said that the party would take legal recourse against the CBI report.
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