"Someone moved over to Varghese and led him to a fissure in a rock, and made him sit there. He was visible only above his chest. Lakshmana ordered me to shoot. I held the barrel close to Varghese's chest. Only the length of the rifle separated us – just four feet. It was a .303 rifle. The day was 18 February 1970 and the time was 6.55 in the evening. As Varghese had earlier requested, I made a signifying 'shoo...' sound. I pressed the barrel against his chest. As soon as he shouted, 'Long Live Mao Unity! Victory to Revolution!' the firing was done. Varghese fell to his right. Thus, the very hand that had fed him the last morsel of rice, killed him."
These horrific words were from a confession note written by a rueful policeman describing what was, perhaps, the first encounter killing in Kerala, way back in 1970. Some years later, Constable P Ramachandran Nair, repentant and disturbed, handed over this note to Ayinoor Vasu, a fellow traveller of the slain Arikkad Varghese.
And Vasu, in turn, kept this a secret for 28 long years.
In 1998, when Vasu finally made it public through Madhyamam Weekly, Kerala was shaken. The Kerala High Court ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe, leading to an intriguing court trial. The CBI Special Court convicted K Lakshmana, a former Inspector General in Kerala Police, and sentenced him to life imprisonment.