KERALA NEWSLETTER: POLICE-MEDIA NEXUS AGAINST CPI(M) EXPOSED

N S Sajith

THE unholy alliance between police and corporate media has become a hot subject of debate in Kerala with fresh revelations about the nexus. The lies and half truths cooked up by the Special Investigation Team probing into the murder of RMP leader T P Chandrashekharan have been prominently used by the media to not only malign but create a social frenzy against the CPI(M).

The CPI(M) had approached the Kerala High Court questioning the leakage to media by the police about investigation into Chandrashekharan’s murder. It cited an earlier verdict of the same court denouncing such leakage. The court has served notices to the media houses and the government on the leakage of the details of the investigation. But in an affidavit submitted to the court, the government clarified that no news regarding the investigation has been leaked to the medial so far.

Even while this petition of the CPI(M) is pending before the court, new shocking revelations about the details of the mobile call records of investigative officers emerged. Deshabhimani, Malayalam daily, revealed the records of the mobile phone calls made by the investigative officers to media persons of various television news channels and newspapers in the last two months. The shocking information is that Josy Cherian, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP)  in the Special Investigation Team has made 3000 odd calls to news reporters since the inception of SIT. In the time span from May 4 to July 8, the number of calls and messages made from Josy Cherian’s mobile phone is a surprising total of 7557. More than half of these calls were made to the journalists who were dealing with the stories regarding Chandrashekharan’s death. Josy Cherian has made these calls from his official phone. 

Apart from Josy Cherian, his colleague DSP Shoukath Ali, a former Youth Congress activist, also continuously made calls to particular media persons and received large amount of calls from the media persons. Josy and Shoukath Ali have become infamous for cooking up stories against CPI (M) and its leaders. According to a reporter, who wishes to remain anonymous, some media persons have even gifted mobile phones to these police officers exclusively for this purpose. 

Reporters from Asianet News Channel, Reporter TV, Manorama News, Malayala Manorama, Mathrubhumi, Madhyamam,Mangalam, Veekshanam were the main vehicles for this cooked up anti-CPI(M) stories planted in the media. With Deshabhimaniexposing the call details, it has now become quite explicit that police –media axis is behind all anti-CPI(M) stories. It has also exposed the fact that the affidavit filed by the police in the high court is bogus.

P MOHANAN SUFFERS BRUTAL TORTURE

In a shocking incident unheard of in recent political history of the state, a senior leader of CPI(M) P Mohanan, district secretariat member of CPI(M), has been brutally tortured by the Special Investigation Team investigating  into the murder of T P Chandrasekharan.  P Mohanan, who was arrested on June 29 while returning from a Party programme, revealed about the torture to the ten member team of legislators that visited him in the Vatakara police station lockup.

CPI(M) central committee member E P Jayarajan, state secretariat member Elamara Kareem and Kozhikode district secretary of the Party T P Ramakrishnan, who led the team, said in a press conference that the interrogation of Mohanan crossed all limits of civility. Police officers were using abusive language aimed at Mohanan’s wife K K Lathika, who is an MLA, and his daughter. This kind of mental torture is extremely condemnable, they said. SIT was resorting to  such inhuman acts in order to get Mohanan’s statement against prominent CPI(M) leaders. Later the CPI(M) leaders had a discussion with AIG Anup Kuruvilla John. Apart from these leaders, legislators A Pradeep Kumar, James Mathew, K K Lathika, K Dasan, M Kunjammad, Purushan Kadalundi, C Krishnan, K K Narayanan, and state committee members of the Party, N K Radha, P Satheedevi were in the team.

DSP Shoukath Ali, who is a former Youth Congress activist, has been frequently terrorising the CPI(M) leaders, including P Mohanan, in order to force them to make statements against state level leaders of CPI(M) in this case. Jayarajan charged the police of using Chandrasekharan murder case as a weapon against the CPI(M). It appears the police is under pressure to obey the orders of Mullappalli Ramachandran, union minister of state for home affairs and state home minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, said E P Jayarajan. Kareem said that Mohanan was even denied proper bedding in the lockup.

K K RAGESH MADE ACCUSED

In an apparent case of political vendetta, the UDF government appointed Special Investigation Team in charge of the investigation into T P Chandrasekharan’s murder has included CPI(M) state committee member K K Ragesh in the list of the accused. 

According to SIT, the charge against former SFI all India general secretary K K Ragesh is that he had given instructions to arrange shelter to P K Kunjanandan, the alleged mastermind of the murder. The SIT has also stated that the case against Ragesh has been registered on the basis of the statement given by Sarin Shashi, SFI Kannur district president who was arrested earlier and set free after interrogation. This is the first time a state committee member of the CPI(M) is being made an accused in this case.

Reacting to this development, K K Ragesh said that this is a clear case of political vendetta and personal feud. He failed to understand how a case being registered against a person who is undergoing ayurveda treatment for the last three weeks. He also said that he did not leave home except in unavoidable circumstances. He pointed out that this latest move of the police comes in the wake of a series of hate news by right wing media.

CPI(M) state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan has said that the new move of the police proves that the investigation into Chandrashekaran’s murder is being undermined by using it to crush the political opponents.

LOKAYUKTA SERVES NOTICE TO CM

The Lokayukta has served a notice to chief minister Oommen Chandy and health minister Sivakumar following a petition questioning the back door appointment of a nurse in Regional Cancer Centre. Questioning the appointment of Flower Augustine, daughter of former KPCC member Augustine, to the post of Nursing Superintendent in RCC Thiruvananthapuram, a social activist, A Girish Kumar, had filed an appeal in the Lokayukta. 

“Flower Augustine, who was once fired from the service before her probation term, was appointed as the Nursing Superintendent through a wrong way, and the salary and other benefits were awarded to her for eight years -- a period during which she was not in the service”, stated Girish Kumar in his appeal. The notification regarding her appointment and payment was issued on May 12, 2012.  

Earlier Flower Augustine was appointed as the Nursing Superintendent in RCC in 1993. She went on leave in the probationary period itself and was dismissed from the service in 1994. A high court verdict against Flower over the dismissal was upheld by the Supreme Court also. In 2002, the UDF government re-appointed her on the condition that no benefits would be awarded. But a new order dated May 12 said that the benefits of this eight year period will be granted to Flower, the appeal stated.