THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Crime Branch seems to have made a major breakthrough in the AKG Centre bomb attack case as it detained a local Youth Congress leader hailing from Manvila in connection with the incident that had precipitated political controversies in the state.
Jithin, a local Youth Congress leader, was taken into custody and is being questioned by the special team.
A crude explosive was hurled at AKG Centre on June 30 at midnight by an unidentified man, who had come in a two-wheeler. The CPM leaders quickly fixed the blame of the attack on the Congress party, which resulted in numerous instances of the stand-off between the CPM and Congress workers in the state.
Several Congress offices were allegedly attacked by the CPM workers across the state in retaliation.
Though a special team was formed to probe the case, they failed to identify the suspect. The delay in arresting the suspect created various conspiracy theories as the Congress party openly claimed that the attack was an insider job.
Senior CPM leader P K Sreemathy commented that the intensity of the bomb attack shook the building. Later, the forensic examination revealed that a low-grade explosive was used in the attack, which further seemingly eroded the credibility of the statements of the CPM leaders on the incident.
It was a stalemate over solving the case that prompted the police higher-ups to hand over the probe to the Crime Branch.
The Crime Branch sources suspect Jithin could have hurled the explosive and he may have gotten the support of other people.
However, the Youth Congress brushed aside the allegation and accused the cops of siding with the ruling party to implement the agendas of the latter.