The Kerala Police has identified the killers of local RSS leader Choorakkad Biju (34), who was brutally hacked to death in Payyannur in Kannur district on Friday, even as fear and anxiety spread among the residents of the sensitive areas in the district despite stepped-up security arrangements.
The police said they had received clear information about the identities of all the seven members of the killer gang — all of whom are CPI(M) sympathisers or workers— that had murdered Biju and that all of them would "fall into the net without delay". Two persons have already been taken into custody in connection with the killing.
According to the police, Biju, Ramanthali Mandal Karyavahak of the RSS and 12th accused in the case pertaining to the murder of CPI(M) worker CV Dhanaraj (38) at Ramanthali, Payyannur last July, was killed by a seven-member CPI(M) gang headed by Rineesh and Anoop of Payyannur, both said to be accused in several criminal cases.
The police have come to the conclusion that the gang had murdered Biju as an act of revenge for the murder of their close friend, Dhanaraj. They have also found out that Biju's killing was the result of a conspiracy and that the killers had stalked the RSS leader for several days before committing the crime.
Biju was hacked to death on Friday evening at Palakkod near Pazhayangadi in Payyannur as he was going home on a motorbike being driven by his friend Rajesh. At a bridge near Palakkod, the killers hit the bike with the Toyota Innova car they were travelling in and then hacked Biju to death. It was Rineesh and Anoop who had hacked the RSS leader.
The CPI(M)'s Payyannur area committee said action would be taken after inquiries if anybody related to the party was involved in the murder as the party's State secretary and a native of Kannur, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, alleged that the BJP and RSS had embarked on a campaign against the CPI(M) and the lDF Government it was heading by using the "unfortunate incident".
The police on Sunday took into custody two persons on the basis of the statement given by Rajesh on whose bike Biju was travelling. They were Benoy, the owner of the Innova car used by the murderers, and Jijesh, who had provided assistance for the gang to take the car on rent on April 25.
The car was taken into custody by a police patrol team from Payyannur early Sundaymorning but the driver managed to escape. Before escaping, he had sprinkled chili powder inside and the car and on its body. Forensic experts confirmed that the patches of paint found on the seized Innova had come from the motorbike on which Biju was travelling.
According to the investigators, Biju, a paint worker, was aware that the Marxists had been stalking him for some time. For the same reason, he had planned to stay away from Kannur and had found a job in Mangalore for the purpose. The gang had waylaid and murdered him when he was returning home from Mangalore on Friday evening after arranging the job.
A top police official said that the incident had striking similarities with the murder of Marxist rebel TP Chandrasekharan in Onchiyam, Kozhikode district in May, 2012.
"In that case also, the killers had waylaid the victim using a car taken on rent, which they had abandoned after brutally hacking him to death," he said.
Meanwhile, fear and anxiety over the violence reached panic levels among the residents of sensitive areas like Payyannur, Koothuparambu and Panur in Kannur district which have a history of violent CPI(M)-RSS conflicts. The police have stepped up security by deploying large numbers of personnel but that has not helped in mitigating the panic among the people.
"Since last May, people here had expected the violence to come down because they thought the CPI(M), as ruling party, would show restraint. But the incidents since July last have disproved that hope. With Friday's incident, the people have once again slipped into fear," said Ramesh Nambiar, a former CPI(M) activist from Thalassery, Kannur.