Pillai flays UDF, LDF for sabotaging Marad riot case

KOZHIKODE: Accusing the Kerala government of sabotaging the Marad riot case, BJP National Executive member P S Sreedharan Pillai today reiterated his demand for a probe by Central agencies in the worst ever violence that claimed nine lives nine years ago in the predominantly fishermen inhabited Marad beach in Kohzikode.


Talking to news persons here, he said the governments headed by the Congress-led UDF and its arch rival CPI (M)-led LDF in alternate terms scuttled the case to protect their activists involved the second Marad violence on May 2, 2003, Out of the total 65 accused figured in the First Information Report (FIR) 35 were UDF men, majority of them Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) workers and 23 CPI (M) cadres, he said.


He said the Special Investigation Team, which had recently taken off from the probe, had not interrogated any of these activists despite handling the case for more than one and a half years clearly indicating official interference. CPI (M) state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan's deposition before the Marad Commission that the CPI (M) does not hold the view that the CBI investigation is required into the incident. That is because maintenance of law and order is a state subject and not the responsibility of a Central Organisation like the CBI, vindicated his stand, he said. Only a probe by the CBI or the National Investigation Agency, which had already expressed willingness to investigate the case, could do justice to the next of kins of the victims hailing from Araya community, he added.