(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) The decision to seek the CBI probe was in the light of police action of invoking Section 15 of UAPA which is mostly applied in terror-related cases.The congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) government in Kerala has decided to hand over the probe into the murder of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader K Manoj to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Manoj 42 was hacked to death last Monday allegedly by a gang of Communist Party of India - Marxist (CPM) workers at Kadirur in Kannur district. The police have registered case against eight persons under various sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).
Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala said the decision to seek the CBI probe was in the light of police action of invoking Section 15 of UAPA which is mostly applied in terror-related cases.
The director-general of police had also recommended a CBI probe into the murder. Ramesh told reporters here on Saturday that the police had slapped provisions of the UAPA on accused because they sought to create terror in the area before committing the murder. Manoj was hacked to death by the gang while he was travelling with a friend in a Maruti Omni van after hurling bombs.
The home minister said that the culprits identified by the police were found to have connections outside the state.
They are also learnt to have received help from abroad. This is for the first time the provisions of the Act have been slapped in a political murder case in Kerala. Provisions in this regard were made in the act through an amendment in 2008. CPM Kannur district secretary P Jayarajan has termed the decision to invoke the sections of UAPA mysterious.
The slain RSS activist was the fifth accused in a case of attack on Jayarajan in 1999 from which he narrowly escaped with serious injuries. Manoj was convicted in the case by the district court but was on bail obtained after filing an appeal in the high court.
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