Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

When criminals keep politicians for company

Thiruvananthapuram: Persons accused in murder and kidnapping cases and those with underworld links have infiltrated major political parties in the city and are using their political status as a cover for criminal activities, according to the police.

They recently arrested an airport-based Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader on the charge of kidnapping financial fraud suspect Sabarinath.

Another CPI(M) functionary from the same locality is an accused in the case. (The contention of the suspects is that Sabarinath owed them money and had gone with them on his own).

The police said most of the suspects in recent gang-related killings in the district owed allegiance to the CPI(M). They included ‘Ambalamukku’ Krishnakumar, ‘Karate’ Suresh and Om Prakash among others. The suspects were allegedly patronised by CPI(M) men having varied business interests, chiefly in real estate and sale of earth from razed hillocks to realtors claiming wetlands for construction, in the city.

The police said genuine political activists, who opposed the entry of anti-social elements into their organisations, had often been the targets of criminal elements. One such activist was stabbed to death near Plamoodu last year.

They said a DYFI leader in the city had sought the help of alleged gang leader ‘Kannanmoola’ Rajesh to ensure his rise in the organisation’s ranks. (The police are searching for Rajesh in connection with the seizure of 35 lethal crude bombs from his ‘den’ at Puthenpalam colony last month.)

The DYFI leader’s connection with the wanted man got exposed when investigators verified Rajesh’s cell phone records. They suspect the DYFI man to be a close confidante of absconding ‘gang leader’ Attingal Ayyappan.

The police said criminal elements, hoping for political support, were portraying some of the recent gang-related killings in the city as RSS-CPI(M) violence. In most cases, the victims and assailants owed allegiance to rival gang leaders and were competitors in real estate, spirit smuggling or wetland reclamation businesses.

CPI(M) district secretary Kadakampally Surendran said the party had initiated strong action against those having underworld links. He said the CPI(M) had already expelled the two airport-based functionaries.

An internal audit is underway to identify and expel those having criminal links and illegal businesses.

He said certain criminal elements had entered the party after the cadre organisation became mass based. Now the party was issuing memberships with caution, he said. The party was resolved to root out the cult of ‘gangsterism,’ which seems to have gripped a small section of its young urban workers, he added.

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