The Kerala government has announced a police probe into an information leak about the list of convicts who are up for remission of their sentences. The probe was announced on Friday, July 19, in particular, to find out who leaked information about giving sanction for remission to three Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] workers convicted of killing Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) leader TP Chandrasekharan in 2012.
A senior police official has been asked to probe if the leak occurred from the police wing, while a prisons official has been directed to investigate if the leak was from their department.
The news about convicts TK Rejeesh, Mohammed Shafi, and Annan Sreejith being on the list of prisoners being considered for remission as per the guidelines that will come into force on Independence Day, caused a huge furore inside and outside the Assembly.
Inside the Assembly, Chandrasekharan’s wife and Vadakara MLA KK Rema attacked Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the CPI(M) for "doing everything" to release the CPI(M) workers, claiming that the party's top brass is scared that they might spill the beans about the conspiracy behind the murder of her husband.
After being caught on the back foot over the remission details coming out in the media, Pinarayi and the party’s top brass claimed ignorance about it and suspended three jail officials who had prepared the remission list.
Chandrasekharan (51) who launched the Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP), was hacked to death on May 4, 2012, while he was returning on his motorcycle to his hometown near Kozhikode. Eleven people were sentenced to life imprisonment, of which three were mid-level CPI(M) leaders.
Chandrasekharan was a popular CPI(M) leader in Kozhikode district but left the party in 2008 and formed the RMP. In the 2021 Assembly polls, Rema, with the support of the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF), won from the Vadakara Assembly constituency, despite the CPI(M) efforts to defeat her.