New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the Kerala government's appeal against a Kerala High Court verdict that allowed an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the Periya twin murder case.
The apex court directed the state police to hand over the documents relating to the case to the central agency at the earliest.
The verdict is a huge setback to the CPM-led Left government in Kerala which has been vehemently opposing a CBI investigation into the murder of two Youth Congress activists in Periya, a village in the northern Kasaragod district.
Sarathlal (Joshy - 24) and Krupesh (19) were brutally hacked to death on February 17, 2019. A Peethambaran, a local CPM leader, is the prime accused in the case and is under arrest.
Reacting to the Supreme Court order, Sarathlal's father Sathyanarayanan said it was a blessing from the god. "The government has been exposed. The verdict is also setback to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan who shields the murderers," he said.
A division bench of the Kerala High Court had on August 25 ruled that the CBI will probe the case.
The Vijayan-led government had brought in high-profile lawyers to defend the accused, after a single bench of the High Court earlier directed a CBI probe, quashing the police charge-sheet in the case. The state government challenged the High Court order in the Supreme Court arguing that the CBI probe was ordered without examining the case diary. The government's stance was that it was not proper to say that the state police's investigation was not in the right direction just because the accused are members of the ruling party.
The government had come under fire from various quarters after they decided to approach the division bench against the single-bench verdict.
The family members of the victims and the Congress party have been demanding a CBI probe into the twin murders alleging that senior CPM leaders in the district conspired to eliminate the two young activists.
Krupesh and Sharath Lal were attacked by three motorcycle-borne men while returning from an event. While Krupesh died at the Kasaragod district hospital, Sarath Lal succumbed to injuries on his way to a medical facility in Mangaluru, Karnataka.