The Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] has found itself in a tight spot after party leader and Alappuzha district panchayat member Bipin C. Babu revealed that the murder of Indian National Trade Union Congress leader Kaleekkal Sathyan in 2001 at Kareelakulangara was premeditated and carried out by the party.
He disclosed this in a letter sent to CPI(M) State secretary M.V. Govindan last month. Mr. Babu, in the letter, also said that he was leaving the party as a section of the CPI(M) was working against him.
Sathyan was a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh activist before joining the Congress and becoming an INTUC leader. Mr. Babu was an accused in the Sathyan murder case. A court acquitted him and other accused in the case in 2006. In the letter, Mr. Babu noted that he was falsely implicated in the case at the age of 19 and spent 65 days in prison.
He was a CPI(M) Kayamkulam area centre member and Alappuzha district panchayat vice-president. Last year, the CPI(M) suspended Mr. Babu from the party for six months. It took disciplinary action against him based on a complaint filed by his wife to the party leadership accusing him of domestic violence. Following the suspension period, the party reinducted him to the branch committee.
Meanwhile, K.L. Prasannakumari, CPI(M) Kayamkulam area committee member and Mr. Babu’s mother, also wrote to the leadership stating that she was leaving the party due to factional feud.
The Congress has demanded a reinvestigation into the Sathyan murder case.
