CBI turns down Kerala's plea to probe TP murder case

In a setback to the ruling Congress-led UDF ahead of Lok Sabha polls, CBI has rejected state government's plea to probe "conspiracy" angle behind a politically sensitive murder case in which a special court had convicted 11 accused, including three CPI-M functionaries.
According to official sources here today, CBI had informed the Oommen Chandy government of its reluctance to take up the probe into the murder of rebel CPI-M leader T P Chandrasekharan, saying the case did not have any larger national relevance.
The UDF circles voiced resentment at the development since the coalition has raised the issue prominently in the election campaign against CPI(M).

State Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala said the government had urged the CBI to reconsider its decision.
Chandrasekharan, a CPI(M) rebel who floated the parallel outfit Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP), was hacked to death in May 2012 near his hometown Onjiyam near Vatakara in Kozhikode district.
After a special court pronounced the verdict in the case, Chandrasekharan's wife K K Rema went on an indefinite fast in the state capital demanding a CBI investigation to unearth the conspiracy behind her husband's murder.

She called off the fast after the state government accepted her demand.
The CPI(M) had opposed the move arguing that it would be unlawful to go in for a fresh investigation in a case in which the judicial verdict had already come.

Meanwhile, an internal party inquiry claimed the murder of Chandrasekharan was plotted by a local functionary out of personal enmity and the party as a whole had no role in it.
A local functionary, K C Ramachandran, who is serving life imprisonment in the case, was expelled from the party following that.