Kerala - Kozhikode   

Petition for probe against Sooraj filed

Staff Reporter

Kozhikode: A petition was filed before the special court conducting the trial in the Marad massacre case on Friday seeking the Crime Branch Criminal Investigation Department (CB-CID) to conduct further investigation into the involvement of the former Kozhikode Collector T.O. Sooraj in "deliberately neglecting and omitting to communicate the intelligence report he had received" to the authorities concerned on the probability of clashes between different communities on Marad beach.

The CB-CID investigated the case relating to the killings of nine persons on Marad beach here on May 2, 2003. The trial in the case is going on at the special court since December 20, 2004.

At present, Mr. Sooraj is the Industries Director in Thiruvananthapuram. The petition was filed by Edapparuthy Muraleedharan, a native of Tirurangadi Taluk, through his lawyer under Section 173 of the Central Act II of 1974.

Special Additional Sessions Judge Babu Mathew P. Joseph posted hearing on the petition to September 29.

The petitioner stated he reliably learned from media sources that the Marad Judicial Inquiry Commission explicitly elucidated that the carnage was an upshot of the "faux pas and omission on part of Mr. Sooraj" to communicate the intelligence report regarding the clash and execution strategy to the authorities thereby failing to initiate preventive action.

This report of the commission, which is based on the probe conducted by District and Sessions Court Judge Thomas P. Joseph, is likely to be tabled in the Assembly in the current session.

From the media, it was learnt that the commission specifically disclosed that the fateful incident was a unilateral assault on Hindus unleashed by religious extremists.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Science exhibition begins
District to organise cultural festival
`Take fresh legal initiatives'
Petition for probe against Sooraj filed
Fete to celebrate State's jubilee
Spate of burglaries
`Mullappally's remarks not party's view'
Army recruitment from October 4
Investigation into nurse's death begins

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu