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2. The Writ Petition came to be filed on 29.3.2007. Briefly put, the case of the writ petitioner is as follows;

At about 3/30 A.M. on 22.10.2006, Shri Fasal who was distributing the newspaper daily by name "Thejus" came to be brutally murdered near the liberty quarters. He received as many as twenty stab injuries. The injuries suggested that the assailants were professionals, and that it was a pre- planned cold blooded murder. Investigation was taken up by the Superintendent, CB CID, Thalassery and no person was arrested. The deceased was a supporter of National Democratic Front (hereinafter referred to as NDF). He was a good behaved man, and he had no enemies. He was earlier an hardened supporter and worker of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (for short, CPM). But, he later shifted his alligience and joined the NDF. It is the further case of the writ petitioner that many members of the Muslim Community defected to the NDF at the instance of her husband. He was instrumental in many a person terminating subscription to the CPM Party and subscribing to the Thejus newspaper. The investigation was proceeding in an unusual manner. The police dog attached to the Dog Squad has got into the houses of certain members of the CPM Party. One Shri Radhakrishnan, Dy. S.P. of the DCRB, Kannur, who had made considerable progress in the investigation, was withdrawn from the team. The murder, it is pointed out, took place in the constituency of Shri Kodiyeri Balakrishnan who is none other than the present Home Minister. Thrisuls were found near the dead body so as to create an impression that the murder was the handi work of the members of Rashtriya Swayam Sevak (RSS). Persons who were taken into custody after the sniffer dog had run into the house of a CPM worker, were all released at the intervention of the leaders of CPM. News items in two popular dailies were relied upon by the writ petitioner. The writ petitioner did not expect, it is her case, to get justice as the CPM is in power and the Minister from the constituency where the murder took place, is controlling the home portfolio. The writ petitioner had filed W.P.(C). No.2063/07 praying for investigation by a specialist and an impartial agency preferably by the CBI. That Writ Petition came to be disposed of by Judgment dated 14.2.2007 and it came to be disposed of entrusting the investigation with a Special Team to be headed by the fifth respondent Superintendent of Police. But, even after such entrustment, no effective investigation had been conducted.

4. The learned Single Judge after evaluation of the circumstances which included perusal of the case diary files, took the view that there was no independent investigation so as to converge on the three accused persons. It is stated that the only guiding factor appears to be the bad antecedents of the three accused persons so that they could be found handy for easy arraignment as the culprits in this case. The learned Single Judge has found the story of Section 27 recovery of the weapons from an open compound adjacent to the Pankaj Talkies after months of the occurrence, too good to be believed. The learned Single Judge has found that even according to the investigating team, the three accused persons were professional gundas involved in several cases. He found that no investigation appears to have been conducted to pinpoint and confirm the identity of A1 to A3 as the assailants of Fasal. The witnesses, namely Abdulla and Lulu Marjan who had allegedly witnessed the occurrence in dim light have not identified the assailants. The learned Judge further noticed that if the accused are professional assassins, they must have been definitely engaged by somebody owing allegiance to the CPM to do away with Fasal towards whom the CPM workers were nurturing extreme enmity for canvassing the Muslim youths to join NDF and for increasing the circulation of "Thejus" Daily. The learned Single Judge also found that there is no evidence forthcoming to show the conspiracy hatched to assassinate Fasal against whom the local CPM activist had an axe to grind for his defection from the Marxist Party. He further found that having regard to the political set up in the State, he was fully convinced that the petitioner will not get justice at the hands of the State Police and that a serious investigation by an impartial agency alone can bring out the truth. It was in such circumstances that the learned Single Judge directed investigation to be done by the CBI. It is thereafter that the learned Single Judge has made the following observations:

8. Contentions of the first respondent/Writ Petitioner Shri Sunny Mathew, learned counsel appearing for the first respondent would, on the other hand, point out that here is a case where the husband of the writ petitioner came to be brutally murdered. There were as many as twenty injuries. He would point out that though there was a call to the Control Room, intimating the police regarding the crime, steps were not taken to identify the informant over phone. He contended that in the Inquest Report by Shri K.P. Philip, Dy. Superintendent of Police, there was a statement given by one Ajinas that there were indeed eight assailants and not three as claimed by the investigating agency. He further contended that the sniffer dogs had run into the house of three CPM workers and the CPM leaders had interfered and taken them away. He further contended that Shri Philip investigated the case for one day. Shri K. Radhakrishnan conducted the investigation which spanned a period between 27.10.2006 to 3.11.2006. He had examined 105 witnesses within the short period of time and he was making considerable progress. What is more important is that he arrived at a conclusion that the murder could be the handy work of either the BJP or the CPI(M). It is contended that the moment the investigating officer observed that the crime could be committed by the CPM activists, the investigation was taken away from him. It is contended that Shri T. Rajamohan was leading the investigation from 12.4.2007 till 24.5.2007 and of the said short period of a little over a month, Shri Rajmohan was on leave for a period of nearly two weeks. He further contended that when the team was re-constituted again on 12.6.2007, strangely, Shri Sali, the former Dy. S.P. who was part of the investigating team and was familiar with the facts, was not included. He further contended that Annexure A Statement dated 31.5.2007 would show that the investigation revealed that CPM workers had enmity towards Muhammed Fasal for allegedly canvassing all Muslim youths to the NDF and increasing circulation of Thejus Daily. It is pointed out that in Annexure C Statement, however, the motive for the crime is stated as follows: