Kerala government, opposition lock horns over Periye twin murder probe

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The opposition and the treasury benches in the assembly on Tuesday locked horns over the probe into the Periye twin murder case. Two Youth Congress workers, Kripesh, 20, and Sharath Lal, 24, were hacked to death, allegedly by CPM workers, at Periye in Kasaragod district last year.
Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the government does not agree with the high court single bench decision to hand over the case to CBI and that is why it has decided to file an appeal. He said the fees for such appeals have been paid from the government exchequer on earlier occasions too and the practice will continue. The CM’s usage of the word “loudmouth” and industries minister E P Jayarajan’s usage of unparliamentary wor-ds against the opposition triggered some tense moments in the assembly when the opposition rushed towards the speaker’s podium. The CM said things will progress as per law, and since the appeal is pending before a division bench, the government is awaiting its decision.
Seeking a leave for adjournment motion, Shafi Parambil MLA who piloted the demand, said that the government is deliberately causing hindrances in the probe by not handing over the case diary and related documents to the CBI, which the CBI officials have mentioned in their status report before the court.
He said that even though five months have passed since the high court single bench ordered the handing over of the case from the crime branch to the CBI, the crime branch is yet to hand over the documents to the CBI. Stating that the CPM had a clear role in the murders and which is why it is attempting to sabotage the CBI probe, he invited the attention of the chief minister to a recent speech by a CPM local leader in Kasaragod which justified the crime.
Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala asked if the party had no role in these murders, why was the government scared of a CBI inquiry and why it was trying to sabotage the investigation. Chennithala said that the government is trying to figure out ways to save the culprits, and the appeal before the division bench of the high court is a proof of the government’s mind-set. After speaker P Sreeramakrishnan refused to admit the adjournment motion on the basis of the explanation by the chief minister, the opposition members staged a walk-out.
Observing serious lapses in the police investigation, the high court had in September handed over the case to the CBI after dismissing the chargesheet filed by the crime branch.
The parents of the victims had moved the court seeking a CBI probe, saying police investigation was not on the right track. The state government had challenged the single-bench order for conducting a CBI probe, but a division bench declined to stay it.