The CBI court in Kochi on Saturday found 14 people , mostly alleged CPI-M activists, including former CPI-M MLA K V Kunhiraman, guilty in the politically sensitive 2019 Periya twin murder case. The court will pronounce the sentence on January 3.

CPI-M local committee member A Peethambaran, Saji C George, Suresh K M, Anil Kumar K alias Abu, Gijin, Shrirag R alias Kuttu, Aswin A alias Appu, Subeesh alias Mani, Ranjith T alias Appu, K Manikandan (Kanhangad block panchayat president), A Surendran alias Vishnu Sura, K V Kunhiraman (former Udma MLA and CPM Kasaragod district secretariat member), Raghavan Velutholy alias Raghavan Nair (former CPI-M Pakkam local secretary and K V Bhaskaran were found guilty by the court.

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The first eight accused persons who were directly involved in the murder were found guilty under IPC sections 302 (murder), 143 (unlawful assembly), 147, (rioting), 201(destruction of evidence), 148 (rioting while armed with a deadly weapon), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 120(b) criminal conspiracy. CPI-M leaders Kunhiraman, Manikandan, Raghavan and Bhaskaran were found guilty under IPC section 225 (obstructing lawful apprehension of accused). Renjith T and A Surendran were found guilty of conspiracy and destruction of evidence.

CBI Special Judge N Seshadrinathan acquitted 10 others as the prosecution failed to prove the charges against them. The acquitted persons are Murali A, Pradeep alias Kuttan, Manikandan B, Balakrishnan N, Madhu A alias Sastha Madhu, Reji Varghese, Hariprasad A, Rajesh P alias Raju, Gopa Kumar V alias Gopan Velutholy and Sandeep PV alias Sandeep Velutholy.

The case pertains to the murder of Youth Congress workers Kripesh(19) and Sarathlal P K(23) allegedly by CPI-M workers on February 17, 2019 due to political rivalry.

After the murders, Peethambaran and his associate C J Saji were arrested. Initially, the case was handled by the Crime Branch wing of the Kerala police. On May 20, 2019, the Crime Branch submitted its charge sheet, naming 14 accused, all linked to the CPI-M. However, dissatisfied with the progress of the investigation, the victims’ parents approached the Kerala High Court, demanding a CBI probe. The Kerala High Court on September30, 2019 quashed the Crime Branch charge sheet and handed over the probe to the CBI.

Following this, the Kerala government moved a division bench of the High Court against the single bench order for the CBI probe into the case. On August 25, 2020, the division bench upheld the single bench’s order transferring the probe to the CBI. The Kerala government challenged the High Court’s decision in the Supreme Court. On December 1, 2020, the Supreme Court dismissed the state government’s petition, allowing the CBI to take over the case.

The CBI, after taking over the probe, arraigned 10 more accused including CPI-M leaders and filed a charge sheet against them in 2022. The charge sheet named 24 accused, including CPI-M leader and former Uduma MLA KV Kunhiraman.The trial began in the Kochi CBI court on February 2, 2023.

Sarathlal’s father Satyanarayanan, and Kripresh’s father Krishnan were present at the court when the court announced the verdict. Although they expressed satisfaction over the court’s finding that the 14 accused in the case are guilty , they are upset over the acquittal of 10 others involved in the conspiracy. “ We will consult with the party leaders and our advocate the possibility of filing an appeal against the acquittal of 10 accused in the case,” said Sathyanarayanan, father of Sarathlal.

Opposition leader V D Satheesan said the verdict of the CBI court finding 14 guilty in the Periya double murder case is a relief and increases the faith of the public in the judicial system. He said the court verdict is a moral victory of the struggle waged by the Congress party and the families of Sarathlal and Kripesh. An appeal will be filed in consultation with the family against the acquittal of the 10 accused in the case, he further said

Welcoming the court verdict, Congress MP Hibi Eden said “If Pinarayi Vijayan has any shame, he should return the money paid to lawyers for not letting CBI take over the probe. The verdict is a dent to CPI-M’s violent politics. Even though, in similar cases the party leaders are often acquitted, the court has found CPI-M leaders guilty in this case. We congratulate CBI, the court and the people of Kerala.”

Vadakara MLA and RMP leader K K Rema said the Kochi CBI court verdict in the Periya double murder case is a blow to the CPI-M. The CPI-M, which had been saying that the party had no role in the murder, had opposed the CBI investigation with all its might and had brought senior lawyers from the Supreme Court at a huge cost. Rema added that the CPI-M opposed the CBI investigation because they knew in advance that their leaders would be punished.

‘’This is not a murder committed by any hired killers. It was a murder that the party had planned and carried out very carefully. The Periya double murder was an incident that shook Kerala after the murder of RMP leader T P Chandrasekharan,” said Rema.

Indian Union Muslim League(IUML) All India General Secretary P K Kunhalikutty said that the family has received justice through the verdict of the CBI court in the Periya double murder case.

Kunhalikutty criticised the government for spending money from the treasury as an unjustifiable incident and said that the money in the treasury also belonged to the deceased.