Marad Killings : Five Years On,63 Found Guilty

MARAD KILLINGS : FIVE YEARS ON,63 FOUND GUILTY 28 Dec 2008, 0234 hrs IST,TNN THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Five years after what was Kerala's worst ever communal carnage, a special court in Kozhikode district on Saturday held 63 people guilty in the Marad killings case. ( Watch ) The case relates to the murder of eight Hindu fishermen by an armed mob at Marad beach on the night of May 2, 2003. One of the assailants was also killed during the attack. There were a total of 139 accused in the case. Additional sessions Judge Babu Mathew P Joseph convicted 62 people for murder while a person was found guilty of abatement. The rest were acquitted of all charges. Arguments for sentencing the convicts will begin on December 30. But in a major setback, the prosecution failed to prove the charge of conspiracy against the accused. This assumes significance given that a one-man judicial commission under District Judge Thomas P Joseph, which probed the incident, had hinted at a foreign angle to it and raised fingers at the role of some Muslim League leaders. The verdict, however, has failed to convince the BJP which said "the justice was only partial". The party also accused the government and opposition of conniving with the accused and making way for them to escape the noose. BJP state president called for a CBI inquiry. According to the prosecution, the massacre, which left the Kerala society deeply polarised, was a revenge for the 2002 killings in Marad wherein three Muslims and two Hindus lost their lives over what began as a minor altercation over water. The judicial commission had earlier asked the government to institute a CBI probe to unravel the conspiracy. The commission felt that the local police had botched up the case and even planted fake leads. The then government headed by A K Antony had refused to order a CBI probe and instead handed it to the crime branch and also set up the judicial commission. The Left, which was then in opposition, too didn't favour a CBI inquiry. The commission's report was hard hitting and blamed some bureaucrats and politicians for their alleged role in the communal frenzy. In particular it pointed to the role of the then district collector T O Sooraj. He had taken control of the Marad Juma Masjid soon after the clashes following information that some of the accused had fled into it. But then he allowed Muslim League MP E Ahmed, who is currently Union MoS for external affairs to enter the mosque. Later police recovered a huge cache of arms from the place of worship. Terming Antony's refusal to hand over the case to CBI as unjustified, it said "the failure of the Crime Branch CID to investigate into the larger conspiracy involving other forces, source of all weapons and the source of the large funding in the planning and execution of the massacre at Marad beach on May 2, 2003 is quite suspicious and disturbing".

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