Thiruvananthapuram:
Former Kerala chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan on Thursday put his party, the Communist Party of India-Marxist, in a spot when he asked the state government to "react positively" and accept the demand of the wife of a former party leader who was brutally murdered near Kozhikode.
T.P. Chandrasekheran, 51, was stabbed to death May 4. His wife K.K. Rema on Tuesday had requested a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the murder, after the police last month filed a chargesheet with a list of 76 accused, including several Communist Party of India-Marxist leaders.
"Rema's demand for a CBI probe is reasonable. Her doubts have to be cleared. (about the possible involvement of party leaders in the murder). Now the ball is in the court of the state government, which has to decide fast whether to hand the case to the CBI," Achuthanandan said to reporters here.
Chandrasekheran was a CPI-M leader from Onchiyam near here who left the party in 2008 and formed his own Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP).
Achuthanandan, who is up in arms against the state leadership of the party on numerous issues, surprised all when he was the only top CPI-M leader to pay his respects to the former colleague after he was slain.
On a crucial polling day at the Neyattinkara assembly constituency, June 2, Achuthanandan dashed off to the house of the murdered Chandrasekheran to spend time with Rema. This was seen as a snub to his party.
Reacting to the demands of Rema and Achuthanandan, Home Minister T. Radhakrishnan said that all legal aspects would be considered before a decision is taken on whether the case could be handed over to the CBI.
"See, there are various aspects in this case. The first is that the state police probe team has done a neat job, arresting those who were directly involved. With regard to identifying the conspirators, the state government will have to take a considered decision," said Radhakrishnan.
The slain leader's widow welcomed the statement from Achuthanandan.
"This is the sort of murder that could not have taken place without the concurrence of the top leadership of the party, and the leaders should be booked. That will only be possible through a CBI probe," Rema said.
Among those accused are P. Mohanan, husband of CPI-M legislator K.K. Lathika and C.H. Ashokan, former secretary of the CPI-M-backed NGO of state government employees.
The chargesheet submitted in the Vadakara magistrate's court claimed that the prime motive for the murder was the serious threat that Chandrasekheran's RMP posed to the CPI-M in the state.