CBI gets custody of CPI-M leader accused of killing RSS worker

A court here on Tuesday allowed the CBI three days of custodial interrogation of CPI-M politician P. Jayarajan who is an accused in the murder of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker Kathiroor Manoj.

The Thalassery principal sessions court asked the Kannur jail superintendent to make all arrangements for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to interrogate Jayarajan for three days starting on Wednesday.

Jayarajan, who suffers from a heart ailment, has been convalescing at a hospital in Kozhikode.

The Thalassery court had on February 12 sent Jayarajan to a month's judicial custody after he surrendered before the district sessions court.

Soon after his surrender he was taken to the Kannur jail. From there, owing to his ill-health, Jayarajan was first moved to a hospital near here and from there to the Kozhikode Medical College hospital.

The CBI had been seeking since February 17 the court's direction to allow Jayarajan's custodial interrogation.

Jayarajan is former Kannur district secretary of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M).

He was booked by the CBI for conspiracy under Section 18 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), in the murder of RSS worker Manoj.

The CBI had earlier claimed that Jayarajan, the 25th accused in the murder of Manoj, is the brain behind the killing.

Manoj, 42, a district functionary of RSS, was hacked to death at Kathiroor in Kannur district of Kerala on September 1, 2014, allegedly by a group of CPI-M workers.