CBI to probe second Marad riot case

Kochi: The High Court has directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to take over the investigation into the larger conspiracy in the planning and murder of nine fishermen at Marad seaside village in Kozhikode on May 2, 2003.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Mohan Shantanagoudar on Thursday gave the order following a writ petition filed by Kolakkadan Moosa Haji, who had sought a CBI probe into the rot case.

The CBI had earlier refused to investigate the case but retracting from the stand later.

Earlier, the Thomas P. Joseph Commission had recommended an investigation by a multilevel Central agency comprising the Intelligence Bureau, the CBI and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence into the larger conspiracy behind the incident, financial sources, and national and international connections and their ramifications.

The Left Democratic Front (LDF) government had constituted a three-member police team in June 2010 to investigate the involvement of external agencies and fundamentalists.

This was after the CBI refused to investigate the case based on the recommendations of the commission.

The massacre had been a retaliatory attack consequent on a deep-seated criminal conspiracy to avenge the communal riots that occurred in January 2002. The petitioner, Moosa Haji, had alleged that the massacre had “involvement and support of terrorist elements as well as external forces and other Muslim fundamentalist forces with the object of creating belligerency within the nation.”