The Kerala police on late Friday evening arrested three CPM workers in connection with the murder of a BJP activist in Kerala, PTI has reported.
The BJP activist named Shamej was murdered on 7 May owing to formation of a “retaliatory attack” following the death of CPM leader K Babu. It has been claimed that Shamej an auto-rickshaw, was pulled out of his vehicle and then hacked to death by six assailants, in New Mahe near Kannur.
As per a local report by Kaumudi the trio has been identified as, M Shaji, R Shibin and Vijin Chandran. They were apprehended from a lodge in the town of Vadakara. All three are being suspected of having a direct involvement in the murder.
As claimed by a Manorama report, the police had earlier arrested three other individuals named Nijesh P K, Jerin Suresh and Sarath P K with regards to the crime, out of which at least two are CPM workers if a Matrubhumi report is to be believed. This latest arrest comes after the BJP’s allegation that the ruling CPM was trying to delay the investigation into the murder.
These dual killings had resulted in a reboot of political violence in the Kannur region, which had seen a lull for about four months.
Kannur, the hometown of Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan has been witnessing violent bloodbaths with political murders since a while now. Violent attacks and killings of RSS and BJP workers have increased ever since the Left Front government took charge in Kerala in May 2016, and the situation doesn’t seem to be improving.
Back in 2016, following the news of a young BJP worker named Vishnu being hacked to death, another BJP worker named Ramith was killed in Kerala. Prior to that, it had seen the murder of 27-year-old RSS worker Sujith, who was earlier a member of the communist party.