KANNUR: Belying the CPM’s denial of involvement in the murder of a BJP supporter in Kannur on Wednesday, the Kerala police arrested six CPM workers on Saturday. Perennially trouble-prone, Kannur has been on edge since the stabbing of Santhosh, a local leader of the BJP, in Andaloor near Dharmadam in Thalassery.
Dharmadam is the Assembly constituency of chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
The six men arrested are: Rohin (31), Shamil MK (26), Rijesh K (27), P Ajesh (25), Midhun K (22, all of Andaloor) and P Prajul (25) of Playad.
The six CPM workers were taken into custody by a police posse led by the Thalassery circle inspector Pradeepan Kannipoyil less than two hours after the incident took place but the arrests were registered on Saturday, apparently after a proper investigation.
Santhosh, 53, contested as a BJP candidate in the last panchayat elections. The BJP shut down the town in protest against the murder on Thursday and alleged that the CPM was behind the attack. This allegation was refuted by the local CPM leadership.
While CPM leaders earlier claimed that the attack on Santosh was the fallout of a property dispute between his relatives, police said it was due to some political rivalry.
The murder is said to be in retaliation to an attack by alleged RSS workers on some Student Federation of India [SFI] students who had gone on an excursion earlier. Santosh was attacked on January 18 at around 11 pm inside his house and had 21 injuries, mostly to the hands and legs. His wife and children were away at the time of the incident.
BJP leaders including the party’s Kerala president Kummanam Rajasekharan refused to accept the Central government’s offer Y category security cover following the series of killings of BJP workers in Kannur.
In their meeting with chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday, they demanded that a special team be set up to probe all the recent murder cases in Kannur. The leaders asked Pinarayi Vijayan minister to visit Kannur and call an all-party meeting to request the recurrence of such murders in the town.
The police are yet to arrest two more suspects, including Vaishnav and Neethul, who are absconding.
According to the police, the recent attack on a former student of Brennen College and Student Federation of India activists was the motive behind the murder of Santhosh.