Remission row: Vijayan govt suspends three jail officials

Thiruvananthapuram: Two days after the Congress-led Opposition slammed Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his Home Department for their alleged plans to grant remission to three CPI(M) workers serving life sentence for the murder of TP Chandrasekharan, the Kerala government on Thursday announced that three prison officers who prepared the remission list had been suspended.

The Congress-led Opposition had on Tuesday slammed the Speaker of Kerala Assembly, AN Shamseer, for protecting CM Vijayan from answering questions on plans for remission to the killers of TP Chandrasekharan and adjourning the House quickly

On Thursday, just before Leader of Opposition, VD Satheesan raised the issue in the Assembly, came the news from CM Vijayan’s office that three top prison officials at Kannur Jail who processed the papers for remission and included the names of the three convicts (TK Rejeesh, Mohammed Shafi and Annan Sreejith) have been suspended.

“All along, the government and the Speaker have been saying, that the reports of remission are speculation. Now three officials have been suspended. If it was mere speculation would such a thing happen? Officials are being made scapegoats. The CPI(M) is doing its best to save its cadres,” said Satheesan.

“Last night, legislator KK Rema (wife of TP Chandrasekharan) got a call from the police asking her comments as per the rules of giving remission, to another accused Manoj, who is also in the list. How come the police are calling when the government and the Speaker said it’s just speculation,” asked Satheesan.

Incidentally, on Thursday, when this issue was being discussed, CM Vijayan was not in the Assembly and in his absence it was State Minister for Excise, MB Rajesh who read out the news of suspension of the three police officials.

Later, speaking to the media Rema said the CPI(M) leadership was doing everything to make life comfortable for the accused as they are afraid of them.

TP Chandrasekharan, 51, who launched the Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP), was hacked to death on May 4, 2012 when he was returning home on his motorcycle to his hometown near Kozhikode.

In the case, a court sentenced 11 people to life imprisonment, of which three were middle-level CPI(M) leaders.

TP Chandrasekharan was a popular CPI(M) leader in Kozhikode District but left the party in 2008 and formed his outfit RMP.

In the 2021 Assembly polls, Rema, with the support of the Congress-led UDF won a stellar victory from the Vadakara Assembly constituency, despite the CPI(M) trying their best to keep her at bay.