Acquittal of 2 CPI(M) leaders in T P Chandrasekharan murder case quashed by Kerala High Court

Quashing the acquittal of two local CPI(M) leaders, K K Krishnan and Geothi Babu, the Bench directed that they be produced before the court on February 26 for hearing on their sentencing. They were convicted under section 120B (criminal conspiracy) read with section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code.

While upholding the life imprisonment handed to 11 people by the trial court, the High Court also found six members of the gang that carried out the attack guilty under section 120B of the IPC. The sentences of these six will be delivered on February 26.

Rama, a UDF-backed legislator from the Vadakara Assembly seat, hailed the High Court verdict. “The court has now ratified our stand that CPI(M) is behind the murder. Chandrasekharan was murdered for airing his opinion. CPI(M) used its political and financial power in the case, and the party is still fighting the case for the killers. The legal fight will continue to ensure conviction for other accused,” she said.

CPI(M) state secretary M V Govindan, however, said the party had no role in the murder. “The party got involved in the case when there was an attempt to implicate its (Kozhikode) district secretary (P Mohanan),” he said.

A special court in Kozhikode had in 2014 sentenced 12 people, 11 of them to life imprisonment, for the murder of Chandrasekharan, who had floated a new party called the Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) in the Vadakara region of Kozhikode district. The prosecution had arraigned 36 accused, and the trial court acquitted 24 of them, including CPI(M) Kozhikode district secretary P Mohanan. One of the accused, CPI(M) leader C H Ashokan, died during the course of the trial. Of the 10 convicted to life, local CPI(M) leader P K Kunhanandan died in 2020 while serving the sentence.

The 2012 murder had rocked Kerala and intensified the debate into the sometimes violent nature of politics, particularly in northern Kerala.

The issue had also added to the tensions within the CPI(M) at the time. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who was then the party’s state secretary, had repeatedly called Chandrasekharan a renegade, while Pinarayi’s rival V S Achuthanandan had hailed Chandrasekharan as a brave Communist. Achuthanandan had also locked horns with the party over the murder case.