5 CPI-M leaders arrested in Periya double murder case in Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 1 (IANS) Exactly a year after the Pinarayi Vijayan government suffered a huge setback when the apex court upheld the verdict of the Kerala High Court's division bench to hand over the probe into the murder of two Youth Congress workers to the CBI, on Wednesday, the CBI arrested five CPI-M leaders in the case.

This is the first arrest the CBI has made after they took over the probe and the total number of arrests has reached 19, as 14 were arrested by the Crime Branch police.

The arrested include CPI-M leaders from the area and it includes Vishnu Sura, S. Madhu, Reji Varghese, Hari Prasad and Raju.

The gruesome murder took place on February 17, 2019 at Periya in Kasargode district.

Youth Congress workers Krupesh, 19, and Sharath Lal Joshy, 24, were attacked by three motorcycle-borne men while returning from an event. While Krupesh died at the Kasargode district hospital, Joshy succumbed to his injuries on his way to a medical facility in Mangaluru, Karnataka.

The family members of the victims and the Congress have been demanding a CBI probe from the outset, saying that the police had failed to arrest the real accused, who, according to them, are senior CPI-M leaders in Kasargode who had conspired to eliminate the two young Congress workers.

The family then approached the High Court and the Single Bench approved of it, but the Pinarayi Vijayan government appealed in the division bench, which upheld the single bench verdict and further the Vijayan government approached the Supreme Court and on December 1, 2020, the apex court upheld the division bench verdict, leaving Vijayan and the CPI-M in tatters.

State Congress president K. Sudhakaran said this is a blow to the Vijayan government who had spent huge amount as legal fees and employed high value lawyers to fight this case and now with the arrests, it's becoming clearer that there are going to be more high profile CPI-M leaders, behind this cruel murder of two youths.

The five arrested accused will now be produced before the CBI court at Kochi on Thursday.