PALAKKAD: A week after RSS worker S Sanjith was hacked to death in front of his wife in broad daylight at Mambram in Palakkad, the police on Monday made the first arrest. The police said he was an office-bearer of Popular Front of India (PFI) and was directly involved in the crime.
He was reportedly picked up from Mundakkayam in Kottayam district. District Superintendent of Police R Viswanath said more details regarding his identity could not be revealed as it would affect the proposed identification parade and the course of investigation. Police said it was a political murder and that they have got leads regarding the other persons who were involved in the crime.
Police sources said the arrested had many criminal cases registered against him. They added the main accused left the district immediately after the crime and that he was still at large. The police said that after killing Sanjith, the five suspects escaped to Aanamalai in Tamil Nadu via Peruvembu and Meenakshipuram.
One of them, along with a friend, reached Mundakkayam where another friend of him — a bakery shop worker — was staying. He stayed with the bakery worker. The police took the trio into custody from their room, said a source. The remaining four suspects went to different places from Aanamalai, they said.
Since the murder, the probe team has taken nine persons including the bakery shop worker into custody for questioning. As Arshika, the wife of the slain RSS activist, had witnessed the killing, the arrested person may be subjected to an identification parade before her. Similarly, members of the public who passed that way in vehicles and saw the crime, could also become witnesses. A school bus too had passed that way at that time.
Police team monitored activities of suspects
A 34-member team led by the district police chief was constituted for the investigation. The team had collected the CCTV images of the car used by the suspects to commit the crime. The police had prepared a list of persons who were involved in similar crimes in the past.
One of the teams was said to be camping in Kottayam and monitoring the activities of the suspects. The police had also recovered blood-stained machetes from Kannannoor beside the Palakkad- Thrissur NH. BJP has been alleging that SDPI activists had killed Sanjith as three attempts were made on his life in the past. However, SDPI had denied its involvement. Sanjith, who was the RSS Thenari Mandalam Bhouthik Shikshan, was murdered just five minutes after he had left his wife’s house.
Surendran meets Shah, seeks NIA probe
T’Puram: BJP state president K Surendran met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on Monday and urged him to institute a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the Sanjith’s murder. Surendran told Shah that at least 10 BJPRSS workers have been killed by Islamic fundamentalists in the past five years in Kerala.
The total number of Sangh Parivar workers killed by fundamentalists in the state would add up to 50, he said. “The manner in which Sanjith was killed, the planning and the weapons used point to the role of
terrorists in the attack,” Surendran told reporters in Delhi.