Chandrasekharan murder: HC notice to media over CPM plea

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The Kerala high court on Friday issued notices to various news channels and newspapers in the state after CPM Kozhikode district committee sought contempt of court proceedings against these entites for publishing details of the TPC murder interrogations.

A division bench comprising acting chief justice Manjula Chellur and justice A.M. Shaffique observed that newspapers giving such news was a usual practice and this was to ensure transparency.

Similar petitions were pending before all the high courts, the bench orally observed while issuing notices, and exempted newspaper owners from appearing before the court.

According to CPM district secretary T.P. Ramakrishanan, who moved the plea, the police and the media are blatantly violating the court order.

The petitioner alleged that, due to political vendetta and with a view to making political gain, rival parties were trying to malign the party and its workers.

“This is actually a conspiracy by rival parties, the visual media and the press,” the petition said.

It also alleged that the court had earlier cautioned the media against the dangers of disclosing the details of the investigations in criminal cases.

Ex-Communists flocking to RMP in Thrissur

The attempts by the Revolutionary Marxist Party to scale up its operation in the state received a boost with a section of the former CPM activists here getting ready to join its ranks.

According to RMP leaders, close to 75 former CPM activists from the Chavakkad and Guruvayur regions would join the Marxist rebels in the wake of the murder of their leader T.P. Chandrasekharan.

“They include a former CITU leader as also a DYFI leader, in addition to several other elected representatives of local bodies who have been abstaining from active politics ever since their expulsion from CPM,’’ they said.

The move is in line with a statement by the slain leader Chandrasekharan who, in April last, visited the district and spoke of a detailed action plan and a mass campaign to boost the RMP ranks across the region.

While some of these rebels were expelled from the party for alleged anti-party activities, others did not renew their membership with the CPM owing to numerous reasons.

The move has come even as the RMP is preparing for an expansion of its operations at the state level with the event ‘Communist Sangamam’, in Kozhikode on June 3.

Binoy, a former DYFI leader in Guruvayur, said he and others would launch an area committee of the RMP within a few days and organise a convention of democrats.

“We have also held discussions with leaders of the LCC and ensured their support for the initiative,’’ he said.

RMP to expand base to all districts

Left Coordination Committee (LCC) president P. Kumarankutty and general secretary K.S. Hariharan said here that the Kannur-based Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) would expand its base to other parts of the state soon.

They told the media on Friday that LCC would act as a platform for this purpose. A state-level meeting of neo-left activists, intellectuals and LCC workers would be held at Nalanda Auditorium on Monday, to set things going.

Those like Berlin Kunhananthan Nair, Appukuttan Vallikunnu, K.C. Umesh Babu, Dr. Azad and T.L. Santhosh would participate.

Sujetha Day, chairperson of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and many student leaders of the university would also be present.

Coordination committees will be formed in all districts, and shadow committees in all 15 zones in Kannur district.

Plea for gag on media dismissed

The Vadakara judicial first class magistrate court on Friday dismissed a plea by CPM Thalassery local committee member P.P. Ramakrishnan to order the police against leakage of interrogation details to the media.

Ramakrishnan alleged in the complaint that many of the news items published as his statements in newspapers had nothing to do with the real statements he, as a suspect in the TPC murder conspiracy, gave to police.

Those news items brought shame on his family, he said. The judge ruled that the demand could not be sustained.

Meanwhile, CPM workers organised a protest march to the Chombala police station on Friday demanding strict action against the RMP workers who destroyed the houses of some CPM activists in Onchiyam soon after the TPC murder.

Police blocked the march at the police station premises, and ‘petti’ cases were slapped on the arrested.