Senior CPI(M) leader arrested in murder case

In a huge embarrassment to CPI(M) in Kerala, party's senior state leader P Jayarajan was today arrested in connection with the murder of Indian Union Muslim League youth wing activist Abdul Shukkoor in February.

Jayarajan, Kannur district secretary, who was summoned by the police for questioning, was arrested soon after his arrival at the SP's office and taken to a Magistrate Court.

He has been charged with IPC section 118 (concealing design to commit offence punishable with death or imprisonment for life).

Abdul Shukkoor, an activist of the Muslim Youth League (IUML) was murdered allegedly by CPI-M activists at Keezhara near Kannavam in the district in February this year.

Police claimed that some of the prominent CPI(M) leaders in the district were aware of the circumstances of the murder and they had sought to harbour the culprits.

Jayarajan was accompanied by party functionaries and a large number of CPI(M) workers when he arrived at the office of the SP, who called him for the second time for questioning.

According to police sources, Jayarajan was arrested after interrogation of party functionaries, including CPI(M) MLA T V Rajesh.

Jayarajan, however, dubbed the charge as "fabricated and politically motivated".

Talking to reporters before appearing before the police team, he alleged "anti-CPI(M) elements" in the police and a section of media had been spreading canard against the party.

The arrest of Jayarajan, a confidant of CPI(M) Kerala secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, comes at a time when the party is already on the defensive following the murder of Marxist rebel and RMP leder T P Chandrasekharan in May this year and widely condemned speech of former Idukki district secretary M M Mani on elimination of political foes in the past.

Several party functionaries had been arrested in connection with the Chandrasekharan murder case.

Making matters worse for CPI(M), Mani's public speech that the party had in the past drawn up a list of political foes to be eliminated in Idukki district and already done to death three of them dented the party's image.

The party, however, maintained that it never believed in physical annihilation of enemies and removed Mani from the post of district secretary and dropped him from the state committee.

After Mani's controversial comments, police re-opened some of the murder cases and criminal charges framed against Mani and some other senior leaders in Idukki.