Chandrasekharan murder: District CPM leader in custody


Kozhikode: In a significant development, police today took into custody a prominent district leader of the CPM in connection with the probe into the murder of Marxist rebel and RMP leader T P Chandrasekharan.

According to police, P Mohanan, CPM's Kozhikode district secretariat member, was taken into custody from Quilandy near here and was taken to the camp office of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) at Vatakara.

His wife K K Lathika is CPM MLA from Meppayyur in Kozhikode district.

Mohanan is the first district level leader to be taken into custody by SIT, though several area, local and branch level CPM activists have already been arrested in connection with the politically sensitive case.

Chandrasekharan, once a prominent CPM functionary in the Communist stronghold Onjiyam near Vatakara, was hacked to death on May 4.

He left CPM in 2008 over ideological and organisational issues with the leadership and floated a parallel outfit called Revolutionary Marxist Party.

Though the killing was done by a hit squad, police suspected that the murder was the result of a "conspiracy" hatched by some CPM functionaries.

The party, however, has persistently rejected the charge.

Reacting to Mohanan's arrest, CPM central committee member E P Jayarajan accused the police of acting in tune with the plan drew up by the Congress-led UDF government to frame the party.

"We have been saying this right from the start. With this, it has become all the more evident that the investigation is moving as scripted by party's enemies", Jayarajan said.

Chandrasekharan's widow, Rema, said the RMP's contention that the murder was plotted by the CPM was getting vindicated day by day and the police taking Mohanan into custody was the latest evidence.

-Manorama