Amid investigations into Kerala’s twin political murders, the Additional Director General of Police, Vijay Sakhre, on Thursday said the main accused in the murder of the BJP leader in Alappuzha have slipped out of the state and special teams have been dispatched to neighbouring states to nab them.
The top cop said five arrested workers of the Social Democratic Party of India, the political wing of the Popular Front of India (PFI), were held on charges of conspiracy and tampering with evidence and people who participated in the murder directly were still at large.
Two state-level functionaries of the BJP and SDPI, Renjith Sreenivas and K S Shan, were murdered in Alappuzha on Saturday and Sunday within a span of 12 hours shocking the state. Police later admitted that both were retaliatory killings.
“We have definite information that some of the accused who directly participated in the murder slipped out of the state. Both murders were well- planned and executed. Since the probe is on we can’t divulge any further information,” he said.
He said the allegation of the PFI that some of those detained were forced to chant “Jai Sri Ram.” was baseless. “It is a baseless charge. If the allegation is found right I am ready to quit,” he said. The officer is supervising the special investigation team probing both the killings. He said the SIT identified all those who directly participated in both murders. In the SDPI leader’s murder police arrested three workers of the RSS so far, he said.
The PFI has alleged that the ongoing investigation was biased and intended to satisfy the Sangh Parivar. “Our workers have been hounded and their homes searched in the night without women officers being present. A section of the police is totally biased and out to woo the Sangh Parivar,” it said in a statement in Kozhikode (north Kerala).
The BJP has sought a probe by the central agencies. “We are not satisfied with the ongoing probe. Like in other political killings, the police are literally groping in the dark even after four days of the gruesome murder,” said state BJP president K Surendran.
The police have started a crackdown on those who spread hate on social media after the twin murders. At least 30 people were booked and two arrests were made, said a senior police officer warning that strict action will be taken against those who try to disrupt communal harmony. Police have also approached the admin of these social media sites to block those who try to vitiate the communal atmosphere of the state.
The ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) said communal elements were trying to vitiate peace and carry out a vicious campaign for communal polarization. “Both RSS and SDPI are trying to foment trouble in the state to create an atmosphere of polarization.
People will realize their follies and the government will take strict action against them,” said party state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan adding that it was wrong to dub all Muslims as PFI members and such a move will only help the fundamentalist outfit. He also denied the RSS-BJP allegation that many PFI activists had sneaked into the ruling CPI(M).
