The Kerala Government has decided to refer to the CBI the case relating to Monday’s murder of a senior RSS functionary at Kathiroor in Kannur district.
Announcing this here, Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala said the Government had accepted a recommendation from the Director-General of Police to this effect.
CRIME BRANCH PROBE
An inquiry instituted by the State Crime Branch into the case would go on until the CBI formally takes charge of the case, the Minister said.
Earlier yesterday, the Crime Branch decided to invoke provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 in the case.
Additional Director-General of Police (Crime Branch) S Ananthakrishnan said in Thalassery that the suspected killers had been charged under relevant sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Under Section 15 of this Act, any act with intent to strike terror in people through use of bombs or explosive substances or lethal weapons to cause death of or injuries to persons, constitutes a terrorist act.
TERRORIST ACT
The circumstances leading to the incident and the manner in which the attack was perpetrated had gone to answer these very specifications, the Minister said.
Terrorist acts under this definition are among the offences scheduled in the National Investigation Agency Act, 2008, too.
Under Section 6 of this Act, the police station concerned should submit a report to the State Government to be forwarded to the Centre.
The Centre can decide within 15 days of receipt of the report whether or not the offence under investigation is a scheduled one and a fit case to be probed by the NIA.
HIT-AND-MISS POLITICS
Meanwhile, the Home Minister said this was not the first time that the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act was being invoked in a murder case in the State.
He asserted that the State Government would not allow Kannur and Kozhikode districts to slip back into their bloody past marked by murderous hit-and-miss politics.
Meanwhile, the State unit of the BJP has welcomed the decision of the State Government to refer the Kathiroor murder case to a Central agency.
E Manoj, a Saririk Sikshan Pramukh of the RSS of Kathiroor, was hacked to death on Monday after killers hurled crude bombs at his car. His colleague, who sustained grievous injuries, is still in hospital.