The CBI Court, on 28 December, found 14 CPM workers and leaders, including K.V. Kunjiraman, former MLA of Uduma constituency in Kasaragod district and current CPM Kasaragod district secretariat member, guilty in the Periya massacre case. The case pertains to the brutal murders of Kripesh (19) and Saratlal (23), two Youth Congress workers, on 17 February 2019. Sentencing will be pronounced on 3 January 2025.
The CBI inquiry was ordered by the Supreme Court following petitions filed by the mothers of the deceased. The CPM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) Government reportedly spent crores of rupees engaging senior lawyers to counter the mothers’ petitions seeking a CBI investigation.
The CPM-led LDF government left no stone unturned in attempting to sabotage the state police inquiry. The involvement of former MLA K.V. Kunjiraman in the massacre was established, and he was added to the list of accused after the CBI took over the investigation.
The accused were found guilty after a trial lasting 20 months. The massacre occurred on 17 February 2019, following a clash between SFI and KSU at a local college. (KSU is the Kerala chapter of the Congress-led National Students’ Union of India.) According to the prosecution, Kripesh and Saratlal had a physical altercation with Peetambaran and Vishnu Sura—two of the accused—one month before the massacre. The prosecution argued that the killings were premeditated.
Vishnu Sura, the 15th accused in the case, requested the court to impose capital punishment. All the accused maintained their innocence, claiming they had not seen their families for the past six years while in custody.
The mothers of Kripesh and Saratlal expressed faith in the judiciary and stated that the accused deserved rigorous and stringent punishment.
All the witnesses stood by their earlier statements, with no contradictions between the evidence submitted by the CBI and the witness testimonies. This consistency was one of the key reasons for the court’s strong findings.
BJP Kerala state president K. Surendran, speaking in Delhi, said that the CBI inquiry had led to these verdicts. He criticised the Congress for lacking sincerity in its approach, alleging that both the CPM and Congress oppose CBI investigations because they fear their members will be implicated. He cited past cases involving the murders of workers of Hindu organisations as examples.
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