M M Mani grilled for five hours

THODUPUZHA: Faced with a virtual ultimatum, CPI (M) leader M M Mani Wednesday turned up before investigators, who grilled him for five hours over his controversial speech that the party had in the past eliminated its foes.


Mani, who had failed to respond to the summons twice, left after promising to appear before them whenever necessary.


Inspector General Padma Kumar, who led the police team, said Mani had cooperated with the process and had promised that he would comply with future summons.


Emerging out of the room in the DySP office where he was quizzed, Mani said he had been allowed to go and that he had given a word to the police that he would make himself available when required by them.


"We have been able to gather quite a lot of information from him. We have to verify them. If necessary, he will be called again and he has agreed to do so," Padma Kumar told reporters.


Former district secretary of CPI (M) in Idukki, Mani landed in trouble in the wake of his controversial public speech that the party in the 1980s drew up a list of foes to be eliminated and done to death three of them.