BJP and RSS leaders along with Jayakrishnan’s mother meet Oommen Chandy in 2012

Thiruvananthapuram, Nov. 9: The 1999 lynching of BJP youth wing leader K.T. Jayakrishnan in front of children in the school where he taught marked the high point in political violence in Kerala’s Kannur district.

Fifteen years on, a central government headed by his party has rejected a demand for a CBI probe into the crime citing delay, shocking and embarrassing state BJP leaders.

Congress MP and former junior Union home minister Mullappally Ramachandran had sought to know the NDA government’s stand on the demand for CBI investigations into this case and another sensational murder, the 2012 killing of rebel CPM leader T.P. Chandrasekharan.

A letter dated October 21 from Jitendra Singh, junior minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, dashed the hopes of a CBI probe into either case.

“The main case relating to murder of Shri T.P. Chandrasekharan has already ended in conviction after thorough investigation by Kerala police and no significant outcome may be achieved by further investigation by CBI,” the letter said.

“In (the) other case, relating to murder of Shri Jayakrishnan Master, the accused persons have been convicted by the court and further investigation into this fourteen-year-old case by (the) CBI has not been found feasible due to its vintage status.”

Jitendra’s letter also revealed something not widely known: that the Centre had received a “request from (the) state government of Kerala” for CBI investigations into both cases. It’s not clear whether the Centre has already communicated its decision to the state government.

The letter is a shocker for the local Sangh parivar as the Jayakrishnan case had been at the heart of its campaign against the “murder politics of the CPM” in the Marxist stronghold of Kannur for over a decade.

It’s also deeply embarrassing for the state BJP, which had been accusing successive Kerala governments, headed by the Congress and the Left, and the erstwhile UPA government at the Centre of dragging their feet on the demand for a CBI probe into Jayakrishnan’s murder.

State BJP leaders had even alleged a conspiracy between chief minister Oommen Chandy and the CPM to sabotage their demand. After the Modi government’s reply, many reacted in disbelief while some tried to find a rationale.

“The request for a CBI probe was made when the UPA was in power. And that is what Singh’s letter refers to,” the BJP’s Kannur district president K. Renjith told The Telegraph.

It’s not clear when exactly the Centre took its decision, which would partly have depended on the strength of the reasoning and evidence offered in the state’s request.

“No fresh request has been made after the Modi government took over. The BJP’s stand hasn’t changed — we’ll take the matter up with the Centre again,” Renjith said.

Prominent BJP and RSS leaders had met Chandy along with Jayakrishnan’s mother in June 2012 to press their demand for a CBI probe following alleged revelations on the 1999 case by an accused held in the May 2012 Chandrasekharan murder.

Rajeesh, now convicted and sentenced to a life term in the Chandrasekharan case, allegedly admitted to police that he was part of the Jayakrishnan killing too but was never arrested as investigation in the case was sabotaged.

He claimed that the police, under political pressure, ensured that only one of the alleged killers, A. Pradeepan, was named as accused. The rest were excluded and in their place, names suggested by the political masters were added, he alleged.

Seven men had been arrested in connection with the Jayakrishnan murder. One committed suicide and the rest were convicted and sentenced to death by a fast-track court.

The high court acquitted one but upheld the death sentences of the rest. On appeal, the Supreme Court acquitted four more and commuted the death sentence of the lone remaining convict, Pradeepan, to life imprisonment.

Rajeesh’s alleged revelations prompted calls for reopening the case in the light of the “new evidence”. However, any fresh probe can lead to fresh prosecution only with court permission.

Jayakrishnan was murdered on December 1 while teaching pupils of Class VI, Section B, at the Government Upper Primary School in East Mokeri, Kannur.

It seemed a well-planned operation, with one team attacking him in the classroom and another assaulting and inactivating his personal security officer at a nearby shop.

Before departing, the assailants left a threat on the blackboard warning the terrified children not to give evidence against them. Many of the traumatised children later needed years of psychological treatment.