'Should we have kissed him instead?' Akash's friend on Shuhaib murder

Kannur: Jijo Thillankeri, a friend of Akash Thillankeri - the accused in the Mattannur Shuhaib murder case - justified the murder of the Youth Congress leader on Wednesday on a social media post.

“The decision to kill was made. Should we have just kissed him and let him go, then? “Jijo asked in a comment below a Facebook post. Jijo wrote this in response to a comment criticising the murder of Shuhaib.

Earlier, Akash Thillankeri too had posted a Facebook comment, putting the local CPI(M) leaders on the defensive. In his response to a Facebook post by DYFI Mattannur block secretary Sarish Poomaram, Akash said that he had turned to “quotation” gangs after the party failed to protect him and no one corrected his mistakes.

The Facebook post said that those who ordered the killing were given employment in the party’s cooperative establishments while those who executed it faced poverty and ostracization, and there were no attempts from the party to correct them.

It also said “Sarish is the one who landed us in many troubles. We are able to live in public because many have shut their mouths”. Many diktats are issued. But when cases are filed, no one comes to the rescue. I had tried not to go wayward even while living in poverty. I ventured into various paths after the only option left was to commit suicide, adds the post.

Shuhaib’s father Muhammad has demanded a CBI inquiry into the murder. Muhammad said that at the time of the murder, P Jayarajan was the CPI(M) district secretary and that the killing could not have been carried out without his knowledge. CPI(M) district secretary M.V. Jayarajan charged that Akash Thillankeri was hatching a criminal conspiracy.