Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 22 : 12 years after the brutal murder of a former CPI-M leader in Kerala, the case has come alive again after fresh revelations made by by a former legislator.

On May 4, 2012, a gang of assailants rammed their car into the bike driven by former CPI-M leader Chandrasekharan. After he fell on the road, they hacked him to death with swords.

Chandrasekharan, once an influential local leader of the CPI(M) in Kozhikode district, had fallen out with the party in 2008 and floated a new outfit called RMP, which reportedly posed a challenge to his former party.

What has raised eyebrows now is the revelation made by former Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) legislator K.M. Shaji, who alleged that the 13th accused in the case, P.K. Kunjanandan, did not meet a normal death, but was poisoned while in jail.

Kunjananthan passed away in June 2020, while serving time in jail for his alleged role in the Chandrasekharan murder case. He was undergoing treatment at the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital for his illness at the time of his death.

'Kunjanandan was a popular CPI-M leader who was well connected with the party leadership. Such people land in trouble if a conspiracy is proved. Same was the case with few other political murders that took place in Kerala, where accused CPI-M leaders died mysteriously later,' claimed Shaji.

Popularly known as TP, Chandrasekharan, according to his now legislator wife K.K. Rema, was "eliminated with the blessings of the top party brass for asking questions against the party".

TP, after breaking away from the CPI-M, had founded the Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP).

Meanwhile, the Congress leadership, including its state unit chief K. Sudhakaran and former leader of opposition Ramesh Chennithala, have alleged that the crime took place with the blessings and the knowledge of present Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

The main reason why the Congress leadership is attacking Vijayan is because on Monday, the Kerala High Court upheld the conviction of 12 persons in the TP murder case.

The high court, while rejecting the appeals filed by the convicts (including the appeal by the 13th accused, Kunjanandan, who passed away in 2020), also convicted two more persons -- K.K. Krishnan and Jyothi Babu, both CPI-M leaders -- who had been acquitted by a trial court.

Meanwhile, TP's wife Rema has announced that she will now pursue the case at the apex court, seeking a probe into the conspiracy angle in the case.

The trial court had convicted 12 of the 36 persons accused in the case.

/IANS