FB post by murder accused triggers political row in Kerala

PTI, Feb 16, 2023, 3:44 PM IST

A social media post, by an accused in the killing of a Youth Congress activist five years ago, has put the ruling CPI(M) in Kerala in the dock, as the opposition Congress on Thursday attacked the Marxist party and demanded a CBI probe in the sensational case. Akash Thillankeri, a prime accused in the murder of YC activist S P Shuhaib in Kannur in 2018, put up a Facebook post on Wednesday accusing the local leadership of the ruling party in Kannur of giving him directives to commit crimes.

The shocking revelation was made in a response to a post by a local leader of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) in Mattannur in the politically volatile district.

In the FB post, Thillankeri had claimed that Edayannur party leaders had directed him and his gang to carry out the crimes.

He said if they opened their mouths, many of them (CPI-M leaders) would not be able to walk in open.

The accused even alleged that those who ordered the killing had received jobs in the cooperative bodies, run by the party, but they were pushed to poverty and ostracism which forced them to turn to crimes like gold smuggling. The FB posts were continuation of a war of words going on for some time between the DYFI leaders and those supporting Thillankeri over certain local issues.

The revelations were widely implied as the revelations in connection with the killing of Shuhaib and the Congress party on Thursday demanded a CBI probe into the five-year old murder case, which had triggered widespread political storm in the southern state.

Leader of Opposition in the Assembly V D Satheesan charged that the CPI(M) has degraded into a ”terror outfit” and mafia groups and criminal gangs are thriving under the party-led regime.

This is the biggest threat the Kerala society is facing, he said in a statement.

”Now, it is clear why the CPI(M) is opposing a CBI probe in the Shuhaib murder case. Top lawyers have been hired by the government, at the expense of the common man’s tax money, to oppose the CBI probe in the Supreme Court,” he said.

The Marxist Party leaders would surely be nabbed if the investigation is done properly and so a CBI probe is inevitable for that, Satheesan said.

”A CBI probe is required to bring out the truth,” the LoP added.

Senior party leaders Ramesh Chennithala and K Muraleedharan also came down heavily on the Left government on the issue and urged them to leave the investigation of the case to the central agency.

Opposition BJP’s Kannur district leadership demanded its CPI(M) counterpart to recommend the state government for a CBI probe in the wake of startling revelations by the accused.

However, CPI(M) Kannur district secretary M V Jayarajan rejected the charges and said the party had nothing to do with the killing of the YC activist and no criminal gang received any help from them.

He also wanted the police to launch an investigation against Thillankeri in the wake of his revelations.

Shuhaib was killed by a gang at Mattannur in Kannur district on February 12, 2018.