Kochi: The CBI on Thursday registered an FIR before the Ernakulam Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in the second Marad massacre case pursuant to a High Court directive. SP P. Shiyas belonging to the Thiruvananthapuram unit of the CBI reproduced the same FIR filed by the Crime Branch which investigated the case after the riots in 2003. The accused mentioned in the FIR include local political leaders of Muslim League, P.P. Moideen Koya and Moyeen Haji, NDF activists, Marad mahal committee members and suspected terrorist activists.
The FIR mentions that the accused persons allegedly funded, conspired and executed the riots. The judicial commission appointed to conduct an inquiry into the riots in its reports had raised suspicion about the larger conspiracy behind the violence and recommended further investigation to be carried out by a central agency. The CBI officials said that all the documents related to the investigation carried out by the Crime Branch were handed over to the CBI last week.
The court passed the order while considering a public interest litigation filed by Mr Kolakkadan Moosa Haji in 2012 seeking a CBI probe into the 'conspiracy' behind the attacks. Earlier, the state government had favoured a CBI probe into the incident in which eight persons were hacked to death on May 2, 2003. The special court in Kozhikode had sentenced 62 of the 63 convicts to life on January 15, 2009. There were a total of 139 accused in the case.
