NIA arrested accused hiding in CPI-M stronghold does not augur well: Muraleedharan

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 11 (IANS) A day after the NIA took the key accused in the infamous Kerala Professor’s hand chopping case, into custody from Kannur, where he was living with his family as a carpenter for over a year, the BJP expressed concern as he was living in an area which is a CPI-M stronghold.

Union Minister of State for External Affairs, V Muraleedharan, said the fact that the accused was living in an area which is a CPI-M stronghold doesn’t augur well.

“Mattanoor area from where the accused was picked up is the bastion of the CPI-M. The people in the state might be wondering if Kerala is a hideout for terrorist. Credit is not for the accused for living in hiding,” said Muraleedharan’s heavily loaded statement targeting the CPI-M.

Sawad was on the run for the last 13 years, from the day he committed the crime, and the NIA had declared a reward of Rs 10 lakh for anyone who gave information about him.

According to locals in Mattanoor near Kannur, Sawad was known as Shajahan to them and eked out a living as a carpenter.

Sawad had been living with his wife and two kids in a rented accommodation and his father-in-law on Thursday said they had no clue of his antecedents and he had told them that he had no close family members.

He added that it was only after the news of Sawad’s arrest surfaced that they came to know that Shahjahan was not his real name.

The NIA is expected to seek Sawad’s custody soon, after he was remanded to judicial custody on Wednesday evening by a NIA court here.

Meanwhile, the NIA is zeroing down on people who are understood to have helped Sawad while he was in hiding for the last 13 years.

Sawad was a resident of Ernakulam district and he was the one who chopped Professor TJ Joseph’s right hand in July 2010, with the help of others. All of them belong to the PFI.

The incident took place when Professor Joseph was returning home with his mother and sister from church.

Soon after chopping Professor Joseph’s hand, the attackers told him that he was being punished for the alleged sacrilegious undertones of one of the questions he had framed in an exam at the college where he was teaching.

The case was investigated by the NIA and a special NIA court on two occasions had convicted 19 people owing allegiance to the PFI and Sawad was the only accused left to be arrested.