Thiruvananthapuram,01 December(HS): Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the ruling CPI-M suffered a major setback on Wednesday as the Central Bureau of Investigation arrested five leaders of the CPI-M from Kasaragod in connection with the 17 February 2019 murders of Kripesh and Sarat Lal, two local leaders of the Indian National Congress in the district.

Those arrested by the CBI were identified as Raju (CPI-M Branch Secretary), Surendran, Sastha Madhu, Hari Prasad and Reji Varghese. They were arrested by the CBI team led by Deputy Superintendent Ananthakrishnan.

Kripesh and Sarat Lal were murdered by the Marxists on 2019 February 17 at Periya in Kasaragod. The local police and the Crime Branch which investigated the case tried their best to divert the attention of the general public and the relations of the victims by taking into custody fake persons with the intention of saving the real culprits.

But the local population and parents of the deceased were not satisfied by the Crime Branch Police and they approached the Kerala High Court with a request to entrust the probe to the CBI.

The single Bench of the Kerala High Court which heard the petition quashed the charge sheet filed by the Crime Branch and ordered the transfer of the case to the CBI. Though the Kerala Government questioned the single bench order, the division bench upheld the order transferring the case to the CBI.

But the Kerala Government approached the Supreme Court demanding the quashing of the Kerala High Court verdict. On 2020 December 1, the apex court dismissed the Kerala Government appeal against the High Court verdict and asked the central agency to go ahead with the case.

By a strange coincidence, the CBI arrested all the five accused on the first anniversary of the Supreme Court verdict. All the accused are being transported to Kochi to be presented before the Special CBI Court by Thursday morning.

The decision of the Kerala Government to hire the services of high-end lawyers to argue the case in the High Court to get the CBI probe quashed had raised doubts about the authenticity and credibility of the State Police.

Hindustan Samachar