Campus murder wasn’t planned, say police, rule out personal feud

IDUKKI: Police have ruled out personal vendetta in the murder of SFI activist Dheeraj Rajendran, 21, at the Government Engineering College in Painavu and said the homicide was not planned. One more Youth Congress worker, Jerin Jojo, 22, was held on Tuesday, taking the total people arrested in the case to two. Four KSU activists, including unit secretary Alex Raphael of Kochi, have been detained for questioning. Prime accused Nikhil Paily, 31, was nabbed on Monday.

Meanwhile, the state witnessed revenge attacks by the SFI and the CPM activists in several places for the second day running. In Tiruvalla, SFI workers vandalised a Congress block committee office. As a precautionary measure, the Painavu college, and Maharaja’s College and its hostel in Ernakulam were shut for 10 days.

Idukki SP R Karuppasamy said it was not a planned murder. “It was an accidental attack. However, the culprits will be questioned again. We’re finding out whether more people are involved in the murder.”
While Nikhil admitted to the crime, the police are yet to trace the penknife he used to stab Dheeraj.

Nikhil told police that he carried the knife for his personal safety and came to the college to help out his relative, who was contesting in the college union elections. Police have launched a search for the penknife in the forest area located between the college and the district panchayat. Dheeraj’s postmortem report said he suffered a 3cm-deep stab wound below his left chest.

Stand-off at some places
Repercussions of the murder were felt in different parts of the state on Tuesday too as various organisations organised protest marches, leading to minor law and order issues in some places. P4