Tamil Nadu Police confirmed that BJP State general secretary V Ramesh and Hindu Munnani leader R Vellaiyappan were murdered by Islamists. Ramesh, a chartered accountant by profession, was hacked to death at Salem on July 19 while Vellaiyappan was murdered at Vellore on July 1.
A release by K Ramanujam, the Director General of Police, Tamil Nadu listed the names and photographs of four persons who are wanted in connection with the gruesome murders of the two popular Hindu leaders. A special investigation division of Tamil Nadu Police constituted exclusively to probe the two murders zeroed on Fakkruddin (35), Bilal Malik (25), Ismail (38) and Abu Backer Siddique (45).
The Government has offered `5 lakh to persons who pass on the information about each of the suspects. According to a senior police officer, the four suspects could lead the police to the plot behind the planting of a pipe bomb at Madurai during the visit of BJP leader lK Advani in October 2011. The octogenarian BJP leader had a providential escape as the police deactivated the bomb minutes before he passed through the spot.
Meanwhile, a delegation of BJP national leaders toured Salem and Vellore on Thursday to find out the ground realities related to the murder of six prominent Hindu activists in Tamil Nadu during the last one year.
Following the public outcry against the selective targeting of the BJP and Hindu activists by the Islamists, the Tamil Nadu Government has provided armed security escorts to most of the BJP and Sangh Parivar leaders in the State.