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| P Mohanan: remanded |
P Mohanan, a member of the CPI-M state committee and the district secretariat, is also the husband of K K Lathika, a firebrand legislator representing Kuttiady constituency in the district. Mohanan was arrested yesterday morning and remanded in police custody for a week. Mohanan, a retired schoolteacher, is a former president of the district council.
In the remand report charging him with conspiracy and murder, the police claim it was Mohanan who asked T P Kunhanandan, a key operator who is also in the police custody, to arrange the killer squad to slay Chandrasekharan whose breakaway party posed a threat to the CPI-M in the region.
Some 100 party workers barged into the Vatakara court premises where Mohanan was produced in the afternoon and clashed with police. They also pelted stones at the court forcing the police to resort to caning and firing teargas shells to disperse the crowd.
The party activists took out protest marches in its strongholds and attacked offices of the rival Congress party and its key ally, the Indian Union Muslim League, alleging that the case was fabricated with an intention to malign the party.
The CPI-M has called for a daylong shutdown in the district today. They forced the closure of shops and offices in several places in the district. A television crew was also attacked by party workers in the court premises.
The police had arrested Mohanan from his car while he was travelling with three other leaders after attending a party programme. Police said he had been taken into custody on the basis of a statement given by Kunhanandan.
With Mohanan’s arrest, the number of people in custody for the T P Chandrasekharan murder has crossed 50, including the six hired killers.
The CPI-M, which leads the opposition Left Democratic Front (LDF) in Kerala, alleges that the state home department was targeting the party in a political vendetta. “The arrest of Mohanan is proof of the political vendetta,” the party secretariat said in a statement here. “The manner in which the (ruling) UDF (United Democratic Front) is manipulating the case is the best example of how far it will go in using the police to fix political opponents,” the CPI-M claimed.
The statement said Mohanan had been “dramatically waylaid” by police as he returned from an official programme of the party and was arrested to create a sensation. It reminded the government that the CPI-M leaders used to appear voluntarily for questioning if notices were served on them and no force was warranted.
The statement pointed out that the party’s Onchiyam area committee secretary, C H Ashokan, who is now in judicial custody along with 13 other CPI-M leaders in the case, was arrested when he was summoned to give a statement.
The state secretariat urged the party workers to stage widespread protests against the ‘hunt’ launched by the UDF government against the CPI-M leaders under the pretext of investigating the T P Chandrasekharan murder.
“The CPI-M state secretariat expresses strong protest against the politically-motivated arrests and the scheming ways the government has adopted to insult the CPI-M leaders,” it said.
Responding to the statement and the violence in Kozhikode district after the arrest, Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said there was no pressure on the investigation team. He asked the CPI-M to co-operate with the probe and come clean instead of indulging in violence.
“The CPI-M should not expect to extract favourable judgment by throwing stones at the court,” he said. “If this is the approach towards the judicial process, what would be the fate of the judge who is to pass the judgement,” the minister commented.
K Rema, widow of the slain leader, said she was certain that some top leaders of Mohanan’s stature were behind the murder. However, K K Lathika claimed the arrests were part of the UDF gameplan.