Pramod (50), friend of RSS leader Manoj who was hacked to death at Kathiroor in Kerala’s Kannur district on September 1, has identified six of the seven Marxist killers who had attacked them. He handed over the names of the killers, who had allegedly got the local CPI(M) leadership for the murder, to the special Crime Branch police team probing the murder.
The disclosure was made by Pramod, who had suffered serious hack injuries in the Marxist attack, when the investigation officials recorded his statement at the Medical College Hospital in Kozhikode, where he was undergoing treatment. Pramod was with Manoj in a Maruti Omni vehicle when the attack took place.
According to Pramod, the Marxist killer gang had first hurled country bombs at the vehicle, which stopped after hitting a wall and an electric pole in the impact of the explosions. The killers instantly pounced on the vehicle, dragged Manoj out from the driver’s seat and ruthlessly hacked him to death, Manoj told the police.
Pramod told the police that he tried to escape the attack but the assailants had hacked him from behind. The CPI(M) had posted three “commando” squads at three different places on the route Manoj was to take, obviously to ensure that he was murdered on that particular day, Pramod told the team.
Sources in the police said that all the six killers whom Pramod had identified were absconding. Eight men, all belonging to the CPI(M), have been named as accused in the FIR registered in the case. The police have also booked Jain Raj, son of Kannur district CPI(M) secretary P Jayarajan, over a Facebook post he had made immediately after the incident to congratulate the killers.
A case has also been registered over a Facebook post, which appeared the other day, threatening Jayarajan. Manoj (42), Kannur district Sharirik Shikshan Pramukh of the RSS, was fifth accused in the case pertaining to the attempt to murder Jayarajan at his house in East Kathiroor on August 25, 1999.
The Kerala Government has recommended a CBI probe into the murder considering the incident’s extreme serious nature and the possible inter-state and international links of the killers. The police have also charged the accused under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.