On December 1, 1999, KT Jayakrishnan Master, former state vice president of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), was brutally hacked to death by a group of CPM goons at the classroom, in front of innocent children, whom he was teaching. In the history of political violence of Kerala, it was the most heinous crime ever committed by a political party in the state.
Jayakrishnan Master was an extraordinary organiser, a respected person among the local people. According to a villager, the CPM was alarmed by his popularity and acceptance among the local people. He entered the CPM hitlist after the party saw him as an immediate threat as he could take on the Communists in their citadel in the next elections.
On the fateful day, as usual, Jayakrishnan Master was teaching his students (Standard VI) in Mokeri East U P School in Panur. At around 10.35 am, a group of cold-blooded communist thugs stormed into the classroom and slaughtered him in front of his students.
According to a local journalist, Master- as he was fondly called- was provided with a bodyguard by the state government after he received threats from CPM. But the bodyguard suddenly disappeared just before the CPM goons entered the classroom. By shouting slogans, hailing CPM, they terrorised the classroom and goons stabbed Master several times in front of students of hardly 11 years old! Before leaving the spot, the assailants left a threat to the children on the blackboard, warning them not to give testimony against them. The incident caused severe psychological problems for many children, as some of them had to seek even medical treatment.
“He lost his father when he was studying in Standard X. I struggled a lot to bring up my children and give them better education,” Master’s mother Kausalya recalled while speaking to Organiser.
“I used to advise him not to campaign against communists. But he didn’t care. He hid everything from me including the threats from CPM leaders. He didn’t want to make me upset,” she added.
“He was very active in politics, and I was little aware of all those things. But I know one thing, my son never hurt anybody. He treated everybody fairly and equally, both his colleagues and political opponents,” she underscores.
“After joining the school as a teacher, he was more engaged in politics than he was before. His political opponents could not tolerate that. He was planning to get married in March in the next year. But before that, they killed him,” Kausalya said in a numbed voice.
“They tried to trap him several times, but each time he managed to escape. I came to know all these things only after his death. One of our neighbours was the main conspirator involved in his murder. He was the brain behind that. Later he has been elected as a panchayat member. The killers of my son are now roaming freely around here, in my vicinity,” she said.
The case was investigated by the Panur police and the charge-sheet had been filed against seven CPM workers. After five years, the Additional Sessions Court has awarded the five accused with the death sentence. CPM mobilised a fund of more than two crore rupees under the banner ‘Fund for Mokeri Comrades’ and filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against the lower court order. Famous criminal lawyer Ram Jethmalani appeared in the court for the accused. The murderers were acquitted by the Supreme Court. Later, CPM made the prime accused the president of the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) of the same school, where he committed the gruesome murder!
The UDF Government had later referred the case to the CBI. However, in 2013, the CBI rejected the state government’s request citing that the incident took place 14 years back. (From Organiser Archives)
