There was tension in many areas of Kerala after two state-level leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), the political wing of the Popular Front of India, were killed in an apparent retaliatory attack in Alappuzha on Sunday.
Police have rounded up at least 50 people in connection with the twin political murders that happened in less than 12 hours in a radius of 10 km, said Inspector General of Police Harshita Attaluri. Prohibitory orders (Section 144) were clamped in the district for two days and many senior police officials are staying in the area to avoid further clashes.
SDPI state secretary K S Shan (38) was stabbed to death by an alleged group of RSS-BJP workers on Saturday night and in less than 12 hours BJP OBC Morch state secretary Ranjith Sreenivasan was hacked to death in his house allegedly by SDPI workers. Both leaders received more than 40 stab wounds, police said.
The SDPI leader was attacked while he was returning home in Mannacherry on his scooter. Assailants who came in a car first hit the two-wheeler and when he fell down they stabbed him repeatedly, police said. He received multiple fractures and head injuries and later he succumbed to his wounds in a private hospital in Ernakulam. He is survived by his wife and two children. Minutes after the murder, SDPI alleged that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was behind the attack. Both RSS and SDPI have blamed each other for the twin murders.
According to the police, there was no immediate provocation for the SDPI leader’s murder but they suspect that it may be in retaliation to the murder of an ABVP worker V Nandu in Vayalar in February this year. Clashes between RSS and SDPI workers take place regularly in many parts of the state and last month a RSS leader S Sanjith was stabbed to death in Palakkad in a similar way.
The BJP leader was attacked on Sunday morning while he was coming out of his house for a morning stroll. He was pounced on by an eight-member team and stabbed before his mother in his house. He died on the way to the hospital. Viswanathan (40) had contested the April assembly elections unsuccessfully.
BJP state president K Surendran said the state government’s open support to the communal outfit led to the gruesome murder. He sought an investigation by a central agency saying the party will not get justice from the state police. “The ruling CPI(M) is running many local bodies with the help of SDPI. It supports the communal outfit to checkmate the RSS,” he said. “Pinarayi Vijayan’s goonda raj took another precious life. No law and order and killers go scot-free,” tweeted Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has condemned the twin murders. “The government will not allow anyone to take the law into their hands. We will not tolerate any attempt to vitiate the peaceful atmosphere of the state,” he said in the state capital. The government has also announced a special investigation team to probe both killings and Additional DGP Vijay Sakhre will supervise it. CPI(M) leader J Chittaranjan, also a local legislator, asked both parties to shed politics of violence.
Opposition leader V D Satheesan and state Congress president K Sudhakaran also condemned the murders. “If police were alert, the second murder should have been avoided. The police should have been given a free hand to investigate both,” said Satheesan.
