Kerala CPI-M leader charged with murder, conspiracy

According to police, cases were registered in Thodupuzha, around 220 km from state capital Thiruvananthapuram, against M.M. Moni, Idukki district secretary of the Communist Part of India-Marxist.

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Moni sent shock waves Friday night when he told a public rally in the Santhampara area in Thodupuzha that the CPI-M has in the past resorted to killing political foes and listed out four such murders.

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These murders reportedly took place in Idukki district in the 1980s.

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Police said three of the four murder cases were dismissed for want of evidence and those arrested were let off after the trial.

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"Since the cases have been registered under non-bailable sections (sections 302 and 109 of the Indian Penal Code), the arrest of Moni should take place anytime," a legal expert told IANS.

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Kerala's Director General of Police T. Asif Ali had given a legal opinion that the cases could be reopened in view of the new disclosures by the CPI-M leader. The Oommen Chandy government had also said that Moni's revelation was "a very serious issue."

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Known for his fiery diatribe, Moni had said that in the past, his party activists in one case shot dead one of their political adversaries; in another one person was stabbed to death; and yet in another case, a person was beaten to death.

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He went on to add that CPI-M is one such party which owns up the crimes it commits.

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With the CPI-M in the dock over two murders (T.P. Chandrasekharan on May 4 and Shukoor murder case in February this year) and with a number of its cadres arrested for their involvement in them, Moni's revelations have doled out another blow to the party.