The court verdict in the T.P. Chandrasekharan murder case delivers a major blow to the cult of assassinating political rivals, practiced by the CPI(M) in Kerala.
The court has found the CPI(M) functionaries K.C. Ramachandran (member of the Kunnummakkara local committee), Manojan aka Trouser Manojan, (branch secretary of Kadanganpoyil) and P.K. Kunhanandan (member of the Panur area committee) guilty, along with members of the killer gang led by Kodi Suni. The indictment of its functionaries from Kozhikode and Kannur districts for the murder establishes the involvement of the CPI(M) in the conspiracy behind the murder.
TP Chandrasekharan was eliminated by the CPI(M) because he raised his voice against the corruption and rightwing deviation of its leadership. The conspiracy for his murder was hatched after the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, in which Chandrasekharan contested as the RMP candidate in the Vadakara constituency, receiving significant votes. Scared by his growing popularity, the CPI(M) planned and executed the murder on May 4, 2012.
RMP appreciates the role of the investigators and the prosecutors in the case, who had to work under tremendous pressure. Broad sections of the media, civil society and Leader of Opposition Comrade V.S. Achuthanandan also stood by the cause of justice. Many ordinary members of the CPI(M) have also helped in bringing out the truth behind the murder.
However, the RMP feels that the full extent of the conspiracy has not been revealed through the trial, which requires further investigation into the role played by the CPI(M) leadership. The CPI(M) leadership has tried to deliberately mislead the public by initially suggesting the hand of other persons and forces behind the murder. Subsequently the CPI(M) leadership announced an internal inquiry and said that if its party members are found involved, action will be initiated against them. That internal enquiry also turned out to be sham exercise.
The CPI(M) in Kerala has collected and spent huge sums of money to protect the accused and pressurize the witnesses in the case; 52 witnesses turned hostile in the course of the trial. Through its influence within the state machinery it ensured that the accused were provided special facilities within the jail. These actions expose its involvement in the crime.
The RMP demands a CBI enquiry into the case to look into the full extent of the conspiracy behind the murder. The RMP will further pursue the case through legal and political means to bring all those responsible for the murder of TP Chandrasekharan to book.
N Venu and KK Rema
on behalf of
RMP State Committee
Protests against Clearance to POSCO
Veerappa Moily, the new Minister of Environment and Forest (MOEF), audaciously cleared POSCO’s Steel Project, violating all norms, just before the arrival of the President of South Korea, Park Geun-Hye’s visit to India.
The Environment Ministry, in a dishonest sleight of hand, is turning an integrated project into convenient compartments and giving clearances separately to each one of them in a gradual manner to deceive the public. As the POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) says, “You can’t separate mines from the plant and the plant from the port. You can’t also ignore the fact that certain matters are still tried in National Green Tribunal.”
The people in Dhinkia, Patna, Govindpur and Nuagaon villages have taken a resolve to intensify our struggle at any cost and to ensure that POSCO is ousted from Odisha’s soil. To protest against the coalition of two hostile governments (in the state and at the centre) on POSCO issue and to protest against atrocities on protestors, PPSS held a massive Dharna in Dhinkia on January 15, 2014, to coincide with the S Korean President’s visit, and also in Bhubaneshwar. In solidarity, the JNUSU, Delhi Solidarity Group, AISA and others organized a Citizens’ Protest at the Environment Ministry.
