CPM slams Centre for transferring case of Kerala youths arrested for Maoist links to NIA; 'crocodile tears,' says Opposition

Thiruvananthapuram: The ruling CPI(M) has hit out at the centre for transferring to the NIA the case relating to the arrest of two Keralite youths under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for their alleged Maoist links, prompting the opposition on Wednesday to slam the LDF government, saying it was shedding “crocodile tears”. The CPI(M) state secretariat had on Tuesday attacked the Union government for transferring the case to NIA. The two — Taha Fazal, a journalism student and Alan Shuhaib, studying law, in their twenties, had been arrested from Kozhikode in November this year on the suspicion of having Maoist links after some pamphlets were recovered from them. [caption id=“attachment_6998661” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AFP[/caption] Their arrest on 2 November had drawn sharp criticism from political parties, including CPI of the ruling front. The CPI(M) had charged the Centre with violating the principle of federalism by handing over the case “arbitrarily” to the NIA even as it was being probed by the state police. The Opposition leader in the state assembly, Ramesh Chennithala attacked the government, saying the two CPI(M) activists had been branded as Maoists, arrested and handed over to NIA. “The Marxist party is now shedding crocodile tears and cannot now wash its hands of the matter,” he said. Chennithala pointed out that the case was taken over by the NIA on December 19 and reports in this regard had come out in the media. He said the chief minister had remained all these days and it was only after Allan’s mother came out against the LDF government that the party was trying to make its stand clear with the statement. “After dubbing the two students as ‘urban Naxals’ the LDF government has handed them to NIA only to please Union home minister Amit Shah,” Chennithala alleged.