Kannur, Jan 21: Four suspects have been arrested by the police for alleged involvement in the killing of ABVP activist Shyam Prasad in Kannur district of Kerala. Police say, all arrested are activists of Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), the political arm of the Popular Front of India.
Prasad, an ABVP activist studying at the Government Industrial Training Institute (ITI) in Peravoor, was riding a motorcycle on Friday when he was waylaid by some youths in a car. Though he tried to take shelter in a house nearby, the gang followed him and hacked him to death.
According to Police, Prasad’s murder was an act of retaliation following an attack on an SDPI worker allegedly by RSS workers in the area last week. A school bus driver, the SDPI activist is recuperating in a hospital. Besides, a woman had reportedly complaint against Shyam Prasad for troubling her.
Police say the four SDPI workers —Salim Hamza, Ameer Abdul Rahman, Muhammad Basheer and Shaheem Shamsudeen— have confessed to committing the murder. Basheer is also an accused in the murder of CPM worker Naroth Dileepan. Police have been able to retrieve the weapons used in the murder. The accused were arrested from Thalappuzha in neighbouring Wayanad district based on the inputs of the eye-witnesses.
On Saturday, Prasad’s body was cremated in the presence of senior BJP and RSS leaders in Koothuparambu. A dawn-to-dusk hartal called by the BJP in the district was largely peaceful with heavy police presence.
BJP demands ban on SDPI
In the wake of the arrest of four suspected SDPI members on murder charges, BJP Kerala State president Kummanam has demanded a ban on organisations like the SDPI and PFI.
Talking to reporters in Kochi on Saturday, Mr. Rajasekharan said probe into the murder should also unearth the circumstances and the conspiracy that led to it.
He accused the CPI(M) of taking a soft stance towards ‘terror outfits’ such as the SDPI and the PFI in Kannur - a CPI(M) stronghold. Mr. Rajasekharan alleged that the murder of the RSS man was evidence to the fact that there existed a Jehadi-Left nexus in that part of the State.
“They are SDPI workers during the day, but are sheltered by the CPI(M) in their hideouts at night,” he alleged.
Kerala had become the nerve centre of terror, with the State government failing to curb such activities, he maintained, asking the State government to outlaw the SDPI and the PFI failing which the demand would be taken up with the Union government.
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