CPI-M veteran V S Achuthanandan reaches out to Kerala CM over Maoists’ encounter

Amid a controversy over the killing of two Maoists in an alleged encounter in Malappuram district, CPI-M veteran V S Achuthanandan on Tuesday wrote to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan expressing his displeasure over the killings.

Action should be taken against police officers, if the encounter was fake, Achuthanandan, who is the Chairman of the Administrative Reforms Commission, said in the letter.

The government should be prepared to hold talks with Maoists rather than annihilate them, he said.

Meanwhile, former Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy, said he was against demoralising the police force by making allegations of ‘fake encounter’ and said the force endanger their life during difficult operations.

Opposition leader in the state Assembly Ramesh Chennithala wanted to know why the chief minister was “silent” on the matter.

“Why is not the CM telling people what actually happened at Nilambur,” Chennithala said at a function in Kottayam.

Two Maoists—Kuppuswamy Devaraj, a central committee member of the outlawed outfit and Ajitha—were killed in an alleged encounter in the Nilambur forests in Malappuram district on November 24 during search operations by a 60-member elite team of the Thunderbolt Force based on a tip-off that some Maoists were camping in the area.

Even as the CPI(M)-led LDF government has ordered a magisterial probe into the incident, there has been widespread criticism over the matter with CPI, a lead partner of the LDF, strongly criticising the government.