Kerala govt orders probe into leak of info on remission to CPI-M workers accused of murder

Thiruvananthapuram, July 19 (IANS) A police probe was announced on Friday to find out from where the information was leaked about giving sanction for remission to three CPI-M workers charged with killing Revolutionary Marxist Party leader T.P. Chandrasekharan in 2012.

A senior police official has been asked to probe if the leak occurred from the police wing, while a jail official has been directed to investigate if the leak was from the jail department.

There was a big furore both inside and outside the Assembly when news surfaced that convicts TK Rejeesh, Mohammed Shafi and Annan Sreejith were on the list of prisoners who can be considered for remission as per the guidelines which will come into force on Independence Day.

Inside the Assembly, K.K.Rema, the wife of Chandrasekharan, attacked Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the CPI-M for "doing everything" to release the CPI-M workers, claiming that the party's top brass is scared that they can spill the beans about the conspiracy behind the murder of her husband.

After being caught on the back foot over the remission details coming out in the media, Vijayan and the party top brass feigned ignorance about it and suspended three jail officials who had prepared the remission list.

Chandrasekharan, 51, who launched the Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP), was hacked to death on May 4, 2012 while he was returning on his motorcycle to his hometown near Kozhikode.

In the case, a court sentenced 11 people to life imprisonment, of which three were middle-level CPI(M) leaders.

Chandrasekharan was a popular CPI(M) leader in Kozhikode district but left the party in 2008 and formed the RMP.

In the 2021 Assembly polls, Rema, with the support of the Congress-led UDF, won from the Vadakara Assembly constituency, despite the CPI(M) efforts to defeat her.