Muzhappilangad Suraj murder case: Court finds nine CPM workers, including CM's press secretary's brother guilty

KANNUR: The Thalassery District Sessions Court found the first nine accused in the Muzhappilangad Suraj murder to be guilty of the crime. The culprits include Manoraj Narayanan, brother of the Chief Minister's Press Secretary PM Manoj, and TP case accused T K Rajeesh. The tenth accused, Nagathankota Prakashan, was acquitted.

The final verdict in the case will be announced on Monday.

CPM workers hacked BJP leader Suraj to death on August 7, 2005, near Muzhappilangad beach. The mainspring was Suraj defecting towards the saffron party from CPM. Earlier there were 12 accused in the crime. The first accused, Shamsu, and the 12th accused, Raveendran died during the trial. The court found TK Rajeesh, Yogesh, Shamjith alias Jeethu, Manoraj, Sajeevan, Prabhakaran, Padmanabhan, Radhakrishnan, and Pradeepan guilty. The police had registered a case against them under sections such as conspiracy and murder.

Suraj had been attacked by CPM activists six months before his murder. He was left bedridden for six months after suffering injuries on his leg during the first attack. The murder took place when Suraj got out of his house after recuperating from his earlier injuries. Suraj was 32 years old at the time of the murder. Initially, a case was registered against ten people, but based on the confessional statement made by TK Rajeesh, who was arrested in the TP case, two more people were added as accused. One of them is Manoraj Narayan.