Kerala to seek CBI probe into CPI-M leader's killing

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Thursday said his government will approach the Centre, seeking a CBI probe into the assassination of CPI-M leader T.P. Chandrasekheran.

K.K. Rema, the widow of the slain leader, had earlier approached the union ministry of personnel, under which the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) functions, seeking a probe by the central agency into the conspiracy angle in the killing.

Chandrasekheran, 51, who had launched the Revolutionary Marxist Party, was hacked as many as 51 times by assailants on May 4, 2012, when he was returning home on his motorcycle in his hometown near Kozhikode.

Chandy on Thursday told reporters here that the state government will again approach the Centre.

"We support the demand of Rema and we will again write to the Centre seeking a CBI probe," he said.

Rema told the media that she had approached the state government in the matter, and later decided to approach the Centre on her own.

A court in Kerala sentenced 11 people, including three CPI-M leaders, to life imprisonment, but discharged 24 others, including present CPI-M Kozhikode district secretary P. Mohanan, whose wife K.K. Lathika is a party legislator.

Leader of Opposition and CPI-M veteran V.S. Achuthanandan has said the murder dented his party's image.