A cryptic but politically loaded Facebook post put out by a former DYFI and CPM leader has come in handy for the Congress to clear it's name in the Venjarammood double murders that took place on the eve of Thiruvonam two years ago, on August 30, 2020.
However, the UDF's attempt to raise the issue in the Assembly on Tuesday was stalled by Speaker M B Rajesh. The Speaker refused to entertain an adjournment motion on the issue saying that the chargesheet in the case was already filed and that there was nothing urgent about the issue that warranted a suspension of Assembly proceedings.
Opposition leader V D Satheesan, on the other hand, said that the motion was moved on the basis of a recent disclosure by a former local secretary of the CPM, who is now in the CPI. He wanted the government to order a reinvestigation on the basis of the new revelation, which he said gave the lie to the CPM narrative that the two DYFI workers, Haq Mohammed and Mithilaj, were murdered by local Congress workers. "As many as 168 Congress committee offices across Kerala were vandalised in the aftermath of the killings, " Satheesan said. "Two of your comrades have been killed. The real culprits should now be brought to book," the Opposition Leader told the ruling bench.
Though Satheesan repeatedly appealed for the motion to be allowed, the Speaker refused. The UDF members rushed to the well of the House and raised loud slogans. The Speaker was unmoved. In protest, the Opposition staged a walk out.
The chargesheet submitted to the Court by the police had implicated local Congress leaders in the crime. As many as eight local Congress workers are now in jail. One of the accused, an INTUC worker who had been absconding, had even attempted suicide while on the run.
The CPM had consistently maintained that the murders were carried out with the knowledge of district-level Congress leaders. Former minister E P Jayarajan had even said that one of the accused, Shajith, had links to Congress MP Adoor Prakash.
Just when the court proceedings in the case were about to begin, a former CPM local committee secretary, D Sunil, put out a Facebook post with clear hints that the murders were the result of internal rift in the local unit of the CPM. In the post, which has now been deleted, Sunil connected the killings of the DYFI leaders to an incident that happened in the area 12 days before the deaths. This incident allegedly involved a standoff between locals and the son of a top CPM leader.
Shafi Parambil, who was deputed by the UDF to move the adjournment motion on the issue, later told reporters that the murders were also connected to an earlier incident where a 15-year-old boy had his legs crushed by SFI boys with a stone. "The murders can be traced back to the assault on the boy," Satheesan also said.
Both Satheesan and Shafi said that the twin murders were the quotation work of the son of a prominent CPM leader. Shafi said the cyber forensic report had stated that the killed were actually the ones who had set out to kill. "CCTV visuals and mobile chats had revealed that the two who were killed were part of a gang that was tasked with carrying out a hit. They came with weapons and the CCTV visuals show them passing the first accused and then turning back to attack him. The first accused has 17 hack wounds on his body, " Shafi said. "It has also not been probed who had conspired to bring both these gangs to one place, " he said.
Satheesan wondered why the government was keeping the cyber forensic report under wraps. "It is clear that they have many things to fear, " he said.
The Opposition Leader also wanted to know why the then DYFI state secretary had visited a police station at 2.30.a.m, right after the murders, and took out a witness with him for a few hours.
Satheesan said the issue was serious and the Congress had no intention of letting the CPM off the hook. "They used this to accuse us of murder, " Satheesan said. KPCC president K Sudhakaran, in the light of Sunil's post, had already said that the CPM was killing it's own men.