BJP activist C Ramith (27), a truck driver, was hacked to death in front of his mother and sister allegedly by a CPI(M) killer-gang in Kerala’s Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s hometown in Kannur on Wednesday around 10.15 am. It has pushed the politically turbulent district into a vortex of panic and anxiety amid growing fears of the escalation of violence.
Ramith was son of BJP-RSS activist Uthaman, a bus driver whom the Marxists had hacked to death after dragging him out of a bus at Chavassery in the district in 2002. The Kerala BJP leadership, which slammed the Chief Minister for the recurring murders in Kannur, called for a State-wide dawn-to-dusk shutdown on Thursday to protest against Ramith’s murder. The BJP demanded a CBI probe, saying it has no faith in the State police.
The spot where Ramith was attacked by the Marxist gang was just half a kilometre away from the CM’s home.