THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Varkala police on Thursday arrested 13 people in connection with the murder of a youth - Saji of Vattaplamoodu Colony at Ayiroor.
Varkala Circle Inspector B Vinod said that the accused were nabbed from Ambedkar Colony at Mannanchery in Alappuzha, where they were hiding after committing the crime on Tuesday.
Prabhakaran, 43, Praveen, 20, Pradeesh, 19, Manilal, 19, Manu, 34, Lohithan, 53, Sudheer, 19, Manoj, 37, Unni, 23, Manikantan, 44, Ajilal, 26, Manu, 19, and Nithin, 21 were the persons who were arrested.
Vinodh said that all the accused were caught in the early hours of Thursday following a search conducted in the colony.
The accused had allegedly killed Saji, 19, by hacking him owing to personal rivalry. Saji is a supporter of Bahujan Samaj Party and the accused were all CPM supporters, the police said. Saji, under the influence of alcohol, had attacked and injured a CPM supporter on Tuesday. After this, he went to the CPM-dominated area in the colony and created trouble, whch led to his killing.