The Kerala Police on Wednesday carried out raids at offices of Islamist outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) and its political wing Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) in connection with the brutal killing of Abhimanyu (20), an activist of pro-CPI(M) student outfit SFI, Sunday midnight at the famous Maharaja’s College in Kochi even as the investigators suspected the role of “professional killers” in the incident.
Four SDPI workers were taken into custody on Wednesday from Vandiperiyar in Idukki district in a police raid in connection with Abhimanyu’s murder. The police had arrested three of the accused on Monday within hours of the incident. There are a total of 15 accused in the case and intense efforts were on to nab the remaining culprits.
The police carried out raids on the offices of PFI and SDPI, especially in south-central Kerala, on Tuesday and Wednesday in connection with the SFI activist. Unconfirmed reports said that the police had detained about 300 PFI-SDPI workers and that they were taken into preventive custody considering the possibility of conflicts.
At least 80 PFI-SDPI workers were taken into custody in Alappuzha district leading to some tension at the police station in Mannanchery after the outfit’s activists staged protests demanding their release. Sources said several workers of these outfits have been detained in Kochi also and that they were being questioned at various police stations in the city.
Abhimanyu, a second-year BSC (Chemistry) student at Maharaja’s College hailing from Vattavada in Idukki district, was stabbed to death by a 15-member gang of suspected activists of PFI, its students’ wing Campus Front of India and SDPI following a dispute over sticking posters on the campus. Stabbed in the chest, Abhimanyu died on the spot.
Of the fifteen members of the gang, only two or three were students of the college and the others were allegedly activists of PFI and SDPI who arrived there amidst the dispute, according to police sources. Another SFI worker, Arjun from Kollam, suffered extremely serious injuries in the gang’s attack and he is presently undergoing treatment at a Kochi hospital.
According to State police chief loknath Behera, the killers of Abhimanyu could have been specially trained people. However, it was not possible at this stage to confirm whether any extremism-oriented group was behind the incident. “The (Campus Front) students had got external help. All necessary steps will be taken to end violence on campuses,” he said.
The preliminary report of the police surgeon who performed the postmortem procedure also suggests the possibility that the killers of Abhimanyu were specially trained people, that they had used specially made weapons to commit the crime and that they had attacked him not just as an act during a conflict but with the clear intention of taking his life.
According to the preliminary post-mortem report, Abhimanyu was stabbed in the chest with a weapon that had reached his heart cutting through the ribs leading to death within seconds. Immediately after the incident, he was taken to the Ernakulam General Hospital 100 meters away but he was dead by then.
The investigators have learned that Abhimanyu was murdered as per a conspiracy. They have also learned that the killer gang had held a meeting at a building in Ernakulam North before leaving for the Maharaja’s College campus. The police had reportedly held a raid at the building the other day.