In a landmark judgment on April 27, the District and Session'sjudge of Thalassery in Kannur district, Shri S. Satheenath sentenced life imprisonment to 14 CPM men for brutally murdering two RSS swayamsevaks, C.K. Sujeesh (24) and P. Sunil (22) on March 2, 2002 at Melur, near Thalassery. It is perhaps for the first time, the judge ordered each of the accused to pay a fine of Rs two lakh each, which would be distributed to the family members of the victims. If the accused do not pay the amount they would have to undergo another five years of imprisonment. Before applying for appeal to the High Court the accused would have to pay 50 per cent of the fine money which would be given to the victims of the family members.
Thalassery and adjoining areas in Kannur district have been witness to a series of clashes between CPM-RSS cadres which has left several martyred, permanently disabled, houses and property destroyed and several families orphaned. The flow of CPM cadres to the RSS from the early seventies has been the main reason behind these violent outbursts.
In this particular case Sujeesh and Sunil who left the CPM to join the RSS were attacked by a huge CPM gang with bombs, axes, swords etc. when they were sleeping in a coir shed in Melur. Their bodies which were recovered from a marshy land nearby bore scores of stab and cut wounds. The irony of this case was that Sunil'sgrandfather was a local leader of the CPM and he gave his approval for killing his grandson. Moreover the funeral procession of the martyred RSS cadres was also attacked by the CPM goons. We usually say blood is thicker than water but here politics is thicker than blood.
The CPM men convicted of committing this blood chilling murder are Dineshan, Sivadasan, Asokan, Mahesh, Jithesh, Nishanth, Sathyan, Byju, Suresh Babu, Sasi, Pradeepan, Rineef Ravindran and Sreedharan.
Surprisingly in another landmark judgment, two years back, this same court had sentenced to death five CPM men for brutally murdering the BJYM leader K.T. Jayakrishnan. The judgement was upheld by the High Court and is now pending before the Supreme Court.
K.T. Jayakrishnan a teacher and a known personality of Thalassery was brutally murdered and beheaded in a class room, in front of his tiny pupils, when he was teaching them. The mob went into the classroom, committed the gruesome murder and left casually as if they had come for a morning walk. Many of the children who were witness to the CPM barbarianism are yet to recover from the shock and trauma. The CPM which gives long lectures to the RSS on honouring court verdicts openly organised mass protests throughout the State against the judge and burnt his effigies. It collected crores of rupees all over the State for fighting the case in higher courts.
It is hoped that fearless judgements like these will make the CPM see sense and oppose ideological opponents politically instead of physically eliminating them.
