A defiant M.M. Mony on Sunday refused to step down from CPI(M)’s organisational post in the wake of his controversial speech that the party had eliminated its foes in the past even as chief minister Oommen Chandy justified the criminal case slapped against him.
“There is no question of my quitting the party post unless it is so decided by the party at then highest level,” Mr Mony, who has kept away from the public eye for the last few days, told reporters in Idukki.
Mr Mony, who is CPI(M)’s Idukki district secretary, also refuted reports of having gone into hiding after police booked a case against him for his speech last week at Thodupuzha where he said CPI(M) had prepared a list and eliminated three rivals in Idukki district in the 1980s. “I have been in politics for over four decades. I do not consider the present controversy as a big issue. We will face it legally and politically,” he said.
The police had on Saturday pasted the notice issued to Mr Mony asking him to appear for questioning before the SIT at his residence and the party’s district committee office.
A case had been registered against Mony last week on charges of murder, abetment and concealing information based on his speech at Thodupuzha.
In Kochi, Mr Chandy told reporters that Mr Mony had questioned the rule of law.
“If no case had been registered (against Mony), people would have questioned the government,” he said. DGP Jacob Ponnose said in Trichur that the investigation in the case was going on smoothly. A special investigation team has been constituted to probe the case, he said. Meanwhile, CPI state secretary Panniyan Raveendran said Mr Mony’s speech was a “slur” on the Communist movement.