In a U-turn, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah urging him to direct the NIA to handover the probe in the case relating to the arrest of two CPI(M) student activists under the UAPA back to Kerala police.
The letter to Shah comes a day after Vijayan strongly defended in the state assembly the NIA's decision to take over UAPA cases against the activists Alan Shuhaib and Taha Fazal.
In a letter to Shah, Vijayan said: "I request you to kindly give appropriate directions and grant approval to the National Investigating Agency for handing over the case back to the Kerala Police to carry on with the investigations which were being effectively carried out."
However, in the letter to Shah, the Chief Minister said the state government was of the opinion that taking over of investigation by the NIA at a stage when the Kerala police has been effectively investigating the case was "quite unwarranted."