Wayanad killing conducted for Central funds: CPI differs with its coalition government

Accusing its own coalition government, headed by Pinarayi Vijayan, of conducting Naxalite encounters to get central funds, the state committee of the Communist Party of India (CPI) on Friday passed a resolution against one such killing in Wayanad, which it said a "civilised society cannot accept".

Addressing the media here after a meeting on Friday, CPI state secretary Kanam Rajendran hit out at the Kerala Police and the government's stand on the encounter.

"Bullet wounds sustained by slain Maoist Velmurugan prove that the encounter was one-sided. There is a huge central government fund for such operations. Eyeing it, such acts in Kerala should not be carried out. The Naxalite movement and its activities that emerged in the 1970s did not take roots in Kerala. It is not because of the killing of all of them. They were not getting the support of the public in Kerala," he said.

Kanam added that such encounters would only tarnish the image of the only Communist government in the country.

"The CPI does not agree with the working style of the Maoists. But the CPI does not agree with shooting them down in the name of encounter either. The practice of orgsing encounters in jungles under the name of "Thunderbolt" is highly reprehensible," he said.

"A magisterial inquiry is necessary but many times in the past we have seen it getting delayed. Everyone knows that there is no Maoist threat to the lives of the people in Kerala. Deploying the Thunderbolt to kill the Maoists is a gross injustice and a violation of human rights, as the Kerala Police has a system in place to deal with any threat," he added.

This comes at a time when Kerala Chief Minister Vijayan, who is also heading the Home Department, supported the encounter saying that the person killed was wanted in cases registered in other states, including a "Maoists attack on a police station".

He claimed that the Naxals opened fire and the person was killed in retaliatory fire.

( With inputs from ANI )

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