Kochi: The LDF government has suffered a major setback with the High Court on Wednesday ordering a CBI probe into the killing of S.P. Shuhaib, president of the Mattannur Youth Congress block committee, on February 12. A single bench said that the probe by the state police agency was not satisfactory and rejected the state government’s argument that the court does not have the power to consider the case and that it should not intervene in the case at this stage of investigation.
The counsel for the CBI informed the court that the agency was ready to take over the investigation. The CBI unit of Thiruvananthapuram will investigate the case.
The court, which issued the order on a petition filed by the father of Shuhaib, said everybody knows who are behind the political killings. It was concerned whether it could raise even a little finger against the prevailing practices. It would be unfortunate if the conspiracy behind the murder goes unproved, it observed. The practice of political killings needs to be ended, it said and observed that many people concerned were washing their hands of the situation.
“How the police can conduct a legitimate investigation based on justice in such a situation,” the court said.
It also asked whether any of the accused in the case was having any personal enmity with the victim. It pointed out that the court had ordered CBI probes in three murder cases in Kannur district.
On the contention of the state government that the court does not have jurisdiction to handle the case, the judge said that the court had handled similar cases.
The counsel for the state said that the killing was a sequel to the political rivalry and clashes at the local level. Shuhaib was involved in beating Biju, one of the accused in the murder case. Biju was a CPM fellow-traveller while Shuhaib a Congress worker, the counsel pointed out.
