KANNUR: 25th accused in Kathirur Manoj murder case, P Jayarajan, former district secretary of CPM’s Kannur unit has got a severe setback. The high court has rejected Jayarajan’s plea which was filed questioning the imposition of UAPA charges on him in connection with the case. Jayarajan’s plea was junked by the division bench of Kerala high court. The accused in the case, including P Jayarajan, has earlier approached the single bench of Kerala high court, citing that CBI has imposed UAPA provisions in the case only on the basis of centre’s direction and the state government has not been consulted in this regard, but their plea was rejected by the single bench, following which they approached the division bench of the high court. This appeal also was rejected by the court on Tuesday.

Kathirur Manoj was killed on 2014 September 1st after creating an atmosphere of terror by exploding a bomb in front of the vehicle in which he was travelling and later he was dragged out of the vehicle and hacked to death. Initially, the case was investigated by the crime branch but later it was transferred to CBI. The agency in its report submitted before the court has said that P Jayarajan, the accused in the case had prior information about the plan of murder. Apart from UAPA, charges of murder, conspiracy and attempt to murder have been imposed on the accused.

The other accused in the case are CPM Payannur area secretary T I Mashusoodanan, Kunnummel Rijesh, Katiyal Meetal Mahesh, Kulapurathukandy Sunilkumar, V P Sajilesh are the other accused in the case. Even though P Jayarajan got the bail, the first 15 accused in the case has been serving life imprisonment for the past five years.