Ex-top cop alleges Chandy shielded Youth Cong leader
A former superintendent of police, who had probed the conspiracy behind the
killing of eight Hindus in Kerala in 2003, alleged that Chief Minister Oommen Chandy prevented him from looking into a Youth Congress leader’s alleged links with a suspected Pakistani terrorist.
C M Pradeep Kumar made the allegation recently at an event organised to commemorate the carnage at Marad in Kozhikode. Chandy said Sunday that the revelation of the former officer was serious, but asserted his office had not intervened in the probe.
“My office had not tried to protect anyone in this issue. Let the officer himself bring the evidence for his charges against my office,’’ said Chandy.
The Youth Congress leader in question is Adam Mulsi, one of the general secretaries of the outfit. He has termed the allegations baseless.
Eight Hindu fishermen were killed by a mob on 2 May 2003 at the Marad beach of Kozhikode. A K Antony was the Kerala Chief Minister at the time of the incident and Congress wanted to hand over the probe to the CBI, but its ally Indian Union Muslim League opposed the move.
Kumar was assigned to look into the conspiracy behind the massacre in 2011 by the former LDF government, but when the UDF government assumed office, the probe lost steam. Later, Kumar was removed as the head of the special investigation team.
He said the investigation into the funding for the incident led the police to suspected Pakistani terrorist Muhamed Fahad, who was arrested in Mysore in 2006. Before the Marad riot, Fahad had visited Kozhikode and investigation into his local contacts showed that he was in touch with Mulsi.
When questioned, Mulsi said his mobile phone was lost in the beach and someone who had got that phone might have called Fahad, said Kumar, quoting the Youth Congress leader’s statement.
The former police officer said Chandy, through a senior officer, asked him not to probe into Mulsi’s alleged links with Fahad. Besides, the senior officer wanted to cover up the interrogation of the Youth Congress leader.
He said he was allegedly shunted out three days after he reported to the higher-ups that a CBI probe was required to unravel the international conspiracy behind the incident.
He said the Marad carnage was not just a communal attack, but an operation planned by terrorists and the perpetrators wanted to trigger a major communal blaze in North Kerala, the former official added.
Ex-top cop alleges Chandy shielded Youth Cong leader | The Indian Express