In a setback to CPI-M in Kerala, a special CBI court in Kochi on Thursday dismissed the discharge petitions filed by the left leaders P Jayarajan and TV Rajesh in the Ariyil Abdul Shukoor murder case.
The court ordered that they cannot be discharged from the case now as it found that there is enough evidence against the duo. Both — Jayarajan and Rajesh — will now face trial in the case.
Jayarajan and Rajesh who are 32nd and 33rd accused in the case, had approached the court claiming that no evidence emerged regarding their role in the case.
However, when the petition was considered by the court, the CBI submitted that Shukoor was murdered in a retaliation attack on the vehicle in which Jayrajan and Rajesh were travelling at Pattuvam. The conspiracy was hatched by six accused persons including Jayarajan and Rajesh at a hospital where CPM leaders were undergoing treatment after the attack.
Shukoor’s mother’s lawyer also informed the court that there are witness statements to prove the conspiracy to murder, phone records, testimony and circumstantial evidence proving the role of Jayarajan and TV Rajesh.
Shukoor, who was a local activist of the Muslim League student wing MSF, was held hostage by a group and murdered in broad daylight at Ariyil near Pattuvam on February 20, 2012.
According to the chargesheet, CPI-M local leaders planned the attack at Taliparamba Cooperative Hospital and Jayarajan and Rajesh knew about it.
Shukoor was allegedly killed by CPI-M workers hours after IUML men attacked a convoy of CPI-M leaders P Jayarajan and T V Rajesh at Taliparamba in Kannur.
Jayarajan was the district secretary of the CPI-M and Rajesh represented the Kalliasseri Assembly constituency at the time of the incident.