Startling revelations by M V Akash alias Akash Thillankeri, an alleged communist hitman, have put the Kerala communist leaders in a spot of bother. Akash admitted that he committed political murders for communist leaders in Kannur, who are now using him as a scapegoat.
Akash is accused of ruthlessly slaughtering RSS worker Vineesh Mavila in Thillankeri and Youth Congress Mattannur block secretary S P Shuhaib near Edayannur. Akash was just 20 when he and a few gang members allegedly murdered 25-year-old Vineesh. Allegedly, Akash now runs drugs, snatches gold from smugglers, and indulges in goondaism for monetary benefits.
So, an accused in several murder cases awaiting trial has openly confessed to killing and admitted the involvement of the party leadership. This will undoubtedly affect the outcome of the case adversely. Such confessions from cyber comrades who grew up under red party flags have made CPM’s top leaders, especially from Kannur, nervous.
Akash noted on FaceBook, “Edayannur (in Kannur) party leaders made us carry out the murder. If we open our mouths, many of them would be unable to walk in the open. Those who made the call have been given jobs in cooperative bodies. We, who carried out the order, have been pushed into poverty and thrown out of the party.”
“When the party denounced us, we turned to gold smuggling and quotations for survival. No one from the party had tried to stop or correct us (from smuggling). Now, I have lost my patience and have come out in the open so that people know the facts,” Akash added.
Akash made the admission in reply to a post by the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) Mattannur block secretary Sareesh Poomaram. After allegedly eliminating several political enemies per party instructions, Akash now threatens to reveal it all. The party leadership has instructed the CPM and DYFI workers not to react, no matter how much Akash provokes.
Desperate party leaders are furiously removing their comments posted below Akash’s statements on social media. CPM is now using the Kerala police to lock up Akash and smoke him out of his stronghold in Kannur.
Recent troubles between DYFI and Akash began in late December 2022. DYFI state joint secretary and central committee member M Shajar presented a trophy to Akash, whom the CPM had described as the head of the gold smuggling syndicate. Earlier, Shajar participated in a vehicle campaign rally in Kannur, demanding the isolation of Akash, claiming that he was the head of a drug trafficking gang.
Outraging Modesty of Women: The Latest Communist Trick?
Apart from critical revelations about political murders, Akash supporters and DYFI leaders indulged in severe mud-slinging on social media. They shared details about the illicit relations between activists and leaders and the proceeds of gold smuggling/snatching. Misogynistic remarks and abusive voice clips were shared on WhatsApp groups, including young children and elderly parents.
Since DYFI state committee member Shajar and Akash’s ‘trophy’ controversy, DYFI activist Sreelakshmi Anoop has followed Akash like a shadow on social media. She is the wife of local CPM leader and Minister M B Rajesh’s staff member Anoop. Sreelakshmi alleged that the trophy controversy was a deliberate attempt to trap Shajar by ‘removing snake poison using the same snake bite.’
She released screenshots/voice clips of discussions in a private WhatsApp group and added her comments. In a voice clip released by Akash, Sreelakshmi is heard saying, “you should have let it go.” This prompted Akash’s friend, Jijo Thillankeri reply, “The decision to kill was made. Should we have just kissed him and let him go, then?
Having provoked Akash enough and having received enough nasty comments, Sreelakshmi finally filed a complaint alleging that Akash and his friends outraged her modesty! This was when the public knew that Akash was ‘absconding.’
Interestingly, the war on FaceBook continued even as police claimed they could not find Akash or his friends Jijo Thillankeri and Jayaprakash Thillankeri. (Marxists who are accused of crimes quickly exchange their surnames with the names of their native villages/towns). On Thursday, Kerala police produced non-bailable warrants against the accused.
They formed two squads under Muzhkunnu Inspector Rajesh Theruvath Peedika and Mattanur Inspector M Krishnan to arrest the three ‘absconding’ Thillankeris. Police even raided Akash’s home on Thursday night, twice. On Friday, they arrested Jijo and Jayaprakash. Within a couple of hours after the arrest, Akash appeared in Mattannur Court, and the judge granted bail to all three.
Another CPM/DYFI flop show went down the drain.
Incidentally, this is the same Kerala police that allegedly provided ‘VIP treatment’ and allowed Akash to spend 12 hours with his girlfriend in jail over three days. Akash had just reached Kannur jail back in 2018 after murdering Shuhaib. The ‘meetings’ took place in an area of the prison where visitors were not allowed. Several local CPM and DYFI leaders made a beeline to visit him in jail. Akash got married last year.
Cold-Blooded Political Murders in Kannur
Akash is from Vanjeri in Thillenkeri village in the high ranges of Iritty taluk of Kannur district, Kerala. Local media that remained passive when BJP worker Vineesh from Thillankeri was hacked to death on 3 September 2016 sprang to life when Congress leader Shuhaib was killed around 9 pm on 12 February 2018.
Vineesh’s murder was a fallout of clashes between CPM and BJP workers over conducting Janmashtami celebrations in Iritty. His body was found hours after a country-made bomb was hurled at the car of 28-year-old Jijesh, a DYFI unit vice president. Jijesh was allegedly part of a gang that had attacked local RSS leader, Sujesh, sparking a chain of events resulting in the killing of Vineesh.
The locals spotted Vineesh with his limbs severed and severe head injuries near the Thillankeri panchayat office around 9 pm. Police found Vineesh lying in a pool of blood, half a kilometer from where Jijesh was attacked and was declared dead by the time they reached the hospital.
As usual, the CPM initially claimed that the RSS itself murdered Vineesh. Later, videos depicting a DYFI march in Thillankeri surfaced that revealed CPM lies. The demonstration’s slogan included, “the swords that chopped Vineesh hasn’t yet been thrown into the Arabian sea.” Incidentally, such war cries hinting at weaponization are not typical communist ones but belong to radical Islamists who use them to remind non-Muslims about the 1921 genocide of Hindus from Malabar.
The same words were used during PFI rallies as late as 2021 in Malappuram and 2022 near Alappuzha. Dr. P A Fazal Gafoor, the President of The Muslim Educational Society (MES) and a ‘liberal’ PFI backer based out of Kozhikode, has used similar language to incite anti-CAA protestors to resort to violence. He wanted Muslims to challenge the writ of the Parliament of Bharat and its independent judiciary.
In September 2016, Akash and Rajin Raj surrendered for the murder of RSS worker Vineesh. They confessed that the murder was executed to avenge the bomb attack on the vehicle of the DYFI unit vice president, Jijesh.
Soon, it became apparent that Akaksh was a product of poisonous and corrosive communist ideologies. His interventions on social media justified CPM atrocities and unleashed fierce attacks on its opponents. Akash’s FaceBook pages revealed that he was a close ally of CPM district secretary P Jayarajan and T P Chandrasekharan’s murder case accused Kodi Suni and Mohammed Shafi.
P Jayarajan is the former CPM MLA from Koothuparamba, Kannur, between 2001 to 2011 and CPM Kannur district secretary from 2011 to 2019 until replaced by M V Jayarajan. Akash’s selfies with chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and alleged close friendship with P Jayarajan’s Dubai-based son Jain Raj did not help the communist cause.
After Vineesh’s murder, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat intervened, ending a three-decade-long political rivalry between the two parties. Allegedly, CPM handed over their dirty work to their newfound covert ally, the Popular Front of India (PFI).
That did not prevent CPM violence against local Congress workers. While Shuhaib was killed in early 2018, DYFI hit squads allegedly hacked to death Youth Congress workers Kripesh (19) and Sarath Lal P K (24) near Periya in Kasaragod on February 17, 2019. There are 11 accused in the Shuhaib murder case, all of whom are CPM members.
After the CPM bailed out Akash in the RSS worker Vineesh’s murder, the accused shifted to Kochi. He stayed away from Kannur and is said to have joined a hotel management course. His Thillankeri neighbors were under the impression that he worked at AKG Center, the state committee office of CPM in Thiruvananthapuram. He returned to allegedly kill Shuhaib, and Akash is the prime accused in that case.
Incidentally, Congressmen alleged that Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leaders helped protect CPM kingpins accused of murder. Ariyil Shukoor (21) was an IUML worker who was stabbed to death in February 2012, and these revelations came in 2022. IUML is a Congress ally both in Kerala and Delhi. This is why the Congress/IUML now shedding tears about Shuhaib’s murder has to be taken with a pinch of salt.
Suspiciously, the CPM disagrees with CBI probes into these alleged political murders. They even spent crores of rupees from the public exchequer to bring prominent Supreme Court lawyers from Delhi to block CBI investigations against the wishes of the opposition and the victim’s families. A K Balan, who was then the Kerala Law Minister, even lied about the same in the assembly.
CPM party kingpins had earlier denied involvement in the murders, and similar charges were filed after ‘investigations’ by Kerala police. More than the CPM leaders, it is the local police who came up with reports that suited their political masters who will face the music following Akakh’s disclosure.
For their conspiracy, their future, post-retirement, will end up in courts, frequent trips to investigating agency offices, and even in prisons. No one can testify to this phenomenon more than M Sivasanakar IAS, the former principal secretary to Pinarayi Vijayan. In Bharat, the perils of dishonest public service duties have changed drastically over the past few years.
Unlike the Congress/IUML, local BJP leaders did not follow up on Vineesh’s murder. Like anywhere in Bharat, the murder of an ordinary Karyakata is of little or no consequence to the biggest political party in the world. The leadership did not even question the newspaper reports documenting that Vineesh was a petty thief. These allegations came after his death when he could not defend himself.
Pottikkal Gangs
A ‘Quotation’ is local slang for illicit activities mainly involving triple crossing and murders committed at the behest of others. Akash is close to Arjun Ayanki, the alleged kingpin of a CPM-backed ‘Pottikkal Gang’ (Pottikkal is slang for snatching) and a Karipur gold smuggling case accused. His mafia engages in highway robberies targeting carriers moving hawala money and gold.
After the arrest of Ayanki, the customs raided the house of Akash in Thillankeri and arrested him too. This happened in mid-2021, and both criticized the party and the DYFI. Meanwhile, the DYFI leaders filed a complaint against this to the Kannur City Police Commissioner, but suspiciously they did not press charges.
Allegedly, the Popular Front of India (PFI) and Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) cadre move the gold from gulf countries. CPM gangs run by criminals like Akash and Arjun snatch them once it reaches Kerala. Wealthy Arabs mostly donate the gold, and the IUML/PFI leadership does not mind the losses/thefts. After all, they did not pay to buy the gold but only spent on the carrier’s air tickets.
BJP has long alleged that such Pottikkal gangs operating in Kerala are nothing but feeder organizations of the CPM. Local communists levy 1/3rd of the share profits from such illegal activities and, in return, provide political protection to these gangs. Trouble started in 2021 when a dispute about sharing the proceeds between two CPM leaders, P Jayarajan and E P Jayarajan from Kannur, escalated.
Though they became wealthy quickly, there is a flipside for the local CPM goons. While the Hindu comrades are allegedly used for illegal activities and unwittingly become revolutionary clowns, the CPM leadership above the Block Secretary has become mostly Islamized.
When the ground reality hits you, the CPM will have branded you a criminal, but by then, it’s too late. That is when offenders like Akash quickly turn to justify their actions and use their victim cards. Words like jobs, survival, and poverty quickly enter their vocabulary.
Recent political developments have created deep fissures within the CPM. This has led to sporadic outbursts from CPM goondas, and Akash is not the first to protest. Sloppy mistakes, mysterious accidents, and unnatural deaths have all added to the issues. While the CPM kingpins were awarded bulletproof Toyota Innovas and ministry berths, the frontmen were discarded.
Those who try to bring out the truth will be jailed using controversial laws like KAAPA (Kerala Anti-social Activities Prevention Act). The Kerala Home department has allegedly used this Act to imprison even if the offenses are political. As per KAAPA, the accused can be prevented from entering their home districts for up to one year and kept in custody without trial for six months.
In late December, the communist regime decided the police could impose KAAPA independently based on a deposition by independent witnesses in cases registered by police suo moto. Only a committee presided over by the District Collector permitted arrests under the Act until then. These changes were implemented, mentioning a spurt in drug cases, but those cases have not come down.
