The CBI's willingness to investigate Kerala killings has come on the concluding day the BJP's two-week-long Jan Raksha Yatra, which is expected to be attended by party chief Amit Shah today.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the central government today told the Kerala High Court they have no objection to taking over the investigation of political murders of the RSS and BJP workers allegedly by the CPM men.
The High Court bench has directed the Left government in the state to file a counter affidavit by October 25; the case will be heard next on October 30.
The court was hearing a petition filed by RK Prem Das on behalf of the Gopalan Adyodi Vakeel Smaraka Trust, based in Thalassery, which had demanded probe into the political murders of RSS and BJP workers.
The CBI's willingness to investigate Kerala killings has come on the concluding day the BJP's two-week-long Jan Raksha Yatra , which is expected to be attended by party chief Amit Shah today.
The BJP's march, which was flagged off by Shah on October 3 from Kannur, the hotbed of political violence in Kerala , is a protest against the political violence allegedly unleashed by the ruling CPM .
Sources in the BJP said Shah would walk with party cadres from Pattom to the Puthrikandam maidan in Thiruvananthapuram, the venue of the valedictory of the two-week-long yatra.
A host of BJP leaders, Union ministers and BJP chief ministers, including Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath, had participated in the yatra at different stages.
The BJP alleges that instances of political violence increased whenever the Left Democratic Front (LDF) came to power in Kerala, which has been ruled alternatively by the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF), and the LDF for a long time.
Rubbishing the BJP yatra, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has accused the BJP and the RSS of carrying out a "malicious campaign" to tarnish the image of the state and damage its tourism industry.
Politics apart, data suggests the culture of political killing in Kerala is followed by both the RSS-BJP combine as well as the Left. In Kannur alone, since the late 60s, nearly 180 people were killed, with the victims being on both sides in an almost equal number.