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Court nod for investigation against CPM leader on political murders
The Kerala high court on Thursday allowed the police to go ahead with their investigation against senior Communist Party of India — Marxist (CPM) leader M M Mani for orchestrating political murders in Idukki district.
Justice S Satishchandran dismissed a petition filed by Mani seeking to quash the first information report (FIR) registered against him in connection with murder of three Congress activists in the hilly district in the early 1980s based on a speech he made at Thodupuzha on May 25.
The judge said the revelations made by Mani, former CPM Idukki district secretary, in his controversial speech, had prima facie disclosed commission of a cognisable offence, which fully justifies registration of crime against him.
Mani had disclosed in his speech that his party had physically eliminated its political opponents in the past and would continue to do so in future. He said three Congress workers were murdered in Idukki as per a list of 13 prepared by his party. Justice Satishchandran said these revelations were shocking to the civilised society. They constitute a challenge to the right to life. The right to life and liberty should be free from fear and threat as the life under fear and threat will be no life at all. Right to life is something more than survival of animal existence and it will include the right to live in peace with human dignity, the judge noted. “The right to engage in political expression and association is guaranteed by the Constitution, which is governed by democracy. Any threat to this right will sound the death knell of democracy,” he said.
Pointing out that Mani was a leader of a national party, the court said that no political party or leader can claim to be above the law. The rule of law alone will prevail always, Justice Satishchandran said in his 72-page judgement.
Mani had contended that the FIR in the case was prepared in the state capital of Trivandrum at the insistence of the Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Home Minister Thiruvanchiyoor Radhakrishanan and was handed over to Idukki superintendent of police with a direction to register a crime.
He said there was no material available warranting registration of three new crimes. He alleged that the police had done it in a “clandestine manner”, fabricating evidence and procuring witnesses inimical to the petitioner due to “continuous intervention” of the Chief Minister and the Home minister.
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