Kasaragod: In the 307-page judgment convicting 14 CPM leaders and workers for the double murder of Youth Congress workers Kripesh (21) and Sarathlal P K (24), Special CBI Court judge N Seshadrinathan praised only one individual — a journalist who helped the court convict four top CPM leaders, including two-time Udma MLA and CPM District Secretariat member K V Kunhiraman, for rescuing an accused from police custody.

"The bold stand taken by prosecution witness 130, (Pakkam) Madhavan, the journalist at the time of investigation and at the time of trial is appreciated," the judge wrote. The "wholly reliable evidence", "free from embellishments and additions", helped the judge hand five-year prison terms to Kunhiraman (62); K Manikandan (45), President of Kanhangad Block Panchayat and member of CPM's Kasaragod District Committee; Raghavan Velutholy (54), former Pakkam local secretary and ex-district president of the CPM's traders' wing, Kerala Vyapari Vyavasayi Samithi; and K V Bhaskaran (58), retired secretary of the CPM-controlled Panayal Service Cooperative Bank.

They were accused of forcibly freeing accused no. 2 Saji C George (47), an entrepreneur who makes interlock tiles, from police custody, a day after the murder.

On February 18, 2019, Madhavan, a journalist with Deepika daily, spotted a Xylo car suspiciously hidden in the Cherutta forest area near his house at Pakkam, 10 km from Kalliyot, where Kripesh and Sarathlal were hacked to death the day before. He telephoned Bekal Police Station to report the car and assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Manoj attended his call.

Manoj and two civil police officers Sreejith and Ratheesh reached Pakkam around 8 pm. Madhavan took the police team to Cherutta, where the car was hidden.

Manoj looked up the registered number KL 14 J 5653 and found that the car belonged to one Saji C George, a resident of Echiladukkam near Kalliyot in Periya. They immediately informed Bekal Station House Officer - Inspector Viswambaran. He in turn sent sub-inspector Prashanth to the spot. When they were waiting for the officer, a few people came near the car. As soon as ASI Manoj asked them who had kept the vehicle there, they fled the scene. But the officer managed to overpower one person, who turned out to be Saji C George, CBI public prosecutor Bobby Joseph Y told the court.

By then sub-inspector Prashanth too reached the spot and questioned the suspect. But George was evasive. Saifudeen M T P, another officer who was at the scene, suspected that Saji C George might be involved in the Kalliyot double murder case and asked him to sit inside the police jeep.

While Saji C George was waiting in the police jeep, a group of CPM workers led by Kunhiraman (A20), Manikandan (A14), Raghavan (A21) and Bhaskaran (A22) trooped in. "Kunhiraman picked up a quarrel with SI Prashanth and threatened him," the prosecutor told the court. Soon after, the group forcibly took Saji C George from the police jeep.

Madhavan's eyewitness account of how Kunhiraman rescued Saji C George from police custody was published by Deepika the following day. Madhavan also deposed in the court as to what exactly transpired in his presence, the judge wrote in his judgment.

Ace criminal lawyer C K Sreedharan, representing Kunhiraman, argued that Section 225 of the IPC could only be invoked if the police had arrested Saji C George, which, he claimed, had not occurred at the time. However, this argument is only partially accurate. Section 225 states that if a person charged with or liable to be apprehended for an offence punishable with death is forcibly freed from custody, the rescuers can be punished with imprisonment of up to seven years.

Sreedharan further contended that a news report in 'Deepika' could not form the basis for accepting the prosecution's version. But Madhavan's account, published in the newspaper, was corroborated in court by ASI Manoj.

Adv Sreedharan then attempted to discredit Manoj by claiming the officer was stationed at Bekal Police Station throughout the night of February 18 and could not have been at Cherutta forest during that time. To support his claim, Sreedharan presented a witness, Sahashad Furkhan, who testified that he visited Bekal Police Station between 10.50 pm and 11 pm on February 18, 2019, to report a fatal road accident. Furkhan stated that ASI Manoj personally recorded his statement by hand.

However, the Public Prosecutor countered, arguing that the handwriting on the statement was not Manoj's but that of another police officer. Judge N Seshadrinathan noted that during Manoj's cross-examination, Adv Sreedharan did not even suggest that the First Information Statement, reportedly recorded at Furkhan's instance, was in Manoj's handwriting.

Manoj told the court that he had left for Pakkam with SI Prashanth's permission and returned to Bekal Police Station at 10.30 pm, where he resumed charge of the general diary.

'Crime Branch tried to save CPM leaders'
ASI Manoj further told the court that he had deposed the entire episode before the investigating officer of the Crime Branch but portions of his statement were not recorded by the investigating office for reasons not known to him.

The CBI prosecutor argued in court that "the Crime Branch played foul and effaced the entire rescue episode from their story while filing the final report to save some of the political leaders, including former MLA of Udma Kunhiraman."

The judge noted, "The Crime Branch swallowed this [rescue] part of the investigation while filing the final report, though PW111 (ASI Manoj) and other officials gave evidence to convince this court that rescue operation had taken place."

The Crime Branch charged Manikandan with the destruction of evidence and not with rescuing an accused. He was arrested on May 14, 2019, and granted bail the same day. The CBI arraigned the other three leaders under Section 225 of IPC for forcibly freeing a murder accused but did not arrest them. After the four leaders were found guilty on December 28, they were allowed to go home after executing bail bonds.

During sentencing arguments, Kunhiraman, through his counsel Adv. C K Sreedharan claimed he went to Pakkam only to assist the police. He requested leniency, citing his age (62) and the dependence of his 85-year-old mother, wife, and two children.

Meanwhile, K Manikandan told the court his son was 11 years old, his daughter under three, and his elderly mother depended on him as his father was no more. However, the court showed little mercy, sentencing all four leaders to five years in prison. They later requested to be lodged in Kannur Central Prison instead of Ernakulam, citing convenience for family visits.

Before being taken to prison, Manikandan blamed a media trial and a right-wing conspiracy for their conviction. On Facebook, he wrote: "A caged parrot [CBI] must obey its master. With fake witnesses and fabricated evidence, you may temporarily silence the truth and imprison us, but you cannot defeat us. When truth is obscured by media trials and right-wing conspiracies, what can be done? In the end, truth will prevail, and justice will triumph," ending his post with a clenched fist emoji.

Privately, the CPM had expected the four leaders to receive two-year sentences, which would have allowed them to secure bail. During the sentencing, Udma MLA C H Kunhambu and CPM District Secretariat member V V Rameshan were in court, prepared to stand as sureties for Kunhiraman and Manikandan. However, after the unexpectedly harsh five-year sentences were announced, they quietly left the courtroom without comment.

Adv C K Sreedharan and K V Kunhiraman share a political history dating back to 2001. Sreedharan, then the Kasaragod Congress District President, contested against Kunhiraman in Udma on a Congress ticket but lost by a margin of 9,664 votes. Over two decades later, in a surprising turn, Sreedharan joined the CPM just two weeks before the double murder trial commenced in December 2022. He took up the defence for nine accused: Peethambaran A (A1), Saji C George (A2), Suresh K M (A3), Anil Kumar K (A4), Balakrishnan N (A13), K Manikandan (A14), K V Kunhiraman (A20), Raghavan Velutholi (A21), and K V Bhaskaran (A22). Of these, eight, excluding Balakrishnan N, were found guilty.