CPM leader's remarks on killings rock Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram: A shocking statement by the Idukki district secretary of the Communist Party of India Marxist (CPM), M.M. Mani, that his party had in the past dealt physically with political opponents and eliminated them, has rocked Kerala.

The statement comes at a time when the entire state is hotly debating whether the CPM had a hand in the recent murder of rebel communist leader and founder of the Revolutionary Marxist Party, T.P. Chandrasekharan, earlier this month.

Following Mani's stunning statement, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said the authorities would investigate matters in that context. The chief minister added that Mani's statement was in contrast to what CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan said recently, that the CPM was not a party of murderers.

Following up on Mani's statement, the state director general of police Jacob Punnoose has directed Idukki district superintendent of police to investigate the revelations. It is likely that the police will re-open case diaries pertaining to the period that Mani referred to in his statement in Thodupuzha.

The crux of Mani's revelations was that the CPM had eliminated three persons, by shooting, beating and stabbing. He said the killing of its opponent Balu was a case in point.

Hit list

Continuing his revelations, Mani said the party had prepared a list of 13 people who had been in enmity with the CPM and that three of them were finished off, one of them shot, one of them beaten and the third stabbed to death.

Mani even dated the crimes, stating that these had happened in 1982 when K. Karunakaran was chief minister and Vayalar Ravi was the home minister and that the incidents happened in the Santhanpara-Rajakkad areas in Idukki.

Mani also had a dig at opposition leader V.S. Achuthanandan, stating that he ought not to have attended the funeral of murdered rebel leader T.P. Chandrasekharan.

Reacting to the shock revelations of Mani, Idukki district secretary of the Congress, P.T. Thomas MP said a case should be charged against Mani and that all the cases that Mani has referred to should be re-investigated.

Congress leader P.C. Vishnunath said Mani should be arrested in the light of his admission of murders and determine who else are in any possible list that his party has drawn up for future executions.

In continuing investigations into the murder of Chandrasekharan, police yesterday took into custody another CPM activist, identified as Ajesh of Mahe.