Kochi: The High Court on Monday ordered a CBI probe into the killing of two Youth Congress activists by alleged CPM workers at Periya near Kasargod in February last year. The court also annulled the chargesheet filed by the Crime Branch police in April and directed the Thiruvanantha-puram unit of the CBI to conduct a fresh investigation.
The court castigated the police probe and observed that the probe team took the version of the first accused Peethambaran as ‘gospel truth’ and prepared the chargesheet. The statement of the accused was given more importance than that of the witnesses. Such lapses could have happened because of the involvement of CPM leaders, it said and asked the CBI to probe all angles in the case, including the role of the political leaders.
The court said the investigation team had even failed in recording the statement of the forensic surgeon on time in such an important case. Krip-esh, 24, and Sarath Lal, 21, were hacked to death by a gang led by the CPM Per-iya local committee member Peethambar-an at Kaliyot near Periya on the night of February 17, 2018.
The CPM has officially disassociated itself from the killings and maintains that it was a personal revenge by Peethambaran as the Youth Congress workers were involved in assaulting him. The party also expelled Peethambaran soon after the incident.
The family members of Kripesh and Lal hold that the killing was the result of a conspiracy hatched at the higher levels of the CPM. They approached the High Court seeking a CBI probe alleging that the local police was shielding the CPM leaders.
