The brutal murder of BJP-RSS worker PV Sujith (27) of Aroli in Pappinissery in front of his parents by suspected Marxist killers late on Monday night has once again pushed Kerala’s politically turbulent Kannur district into the grip of tension and panic.
After Tuesday’s shutdown in three panchayats, called by the BJP to protest against the murder, people in Pappinissery, Kallyasseri and adjoining places were still struggling to overcome the shock the killing had given them and the fear of possible violence in coming days.
“This incident was totally unexpected,” said Ramesh Nambiar, a resident of Valapattanam near Pappinissery. “There was no tension in the area and there had not been any serious incident in recent times which could have caused this. In fact, Pappinissery has not seen a serious incident of political violence in the last five years,” he said.
But that complacency has evaporated all of a sudden with Sujith’s murder. More than the murder itself, it is the way in which it was carried out is what has shocked the people most and stunned the police. “That this happened in a colony checkered with houses perhaps shows the determination with which the killers had come,” said a police officer on duty at Pappinissery.
The killer gang of ten people — BJP leaders say there were 25 of them— barged into Sujith’s home in Azad Colony, Aroli after 11.00 pm on Monday and started attacking him. They hit him with rods in the head and when he fell down they hacked him to death.
The gang did not spare even the aged parents of Sujith. His father Janardanan and mother Sulochana, both daily-wage workers, suffered injuries when they tried to save their son. His elder brother also was injured in the attack. The gang left within a short while after completing their “mission”.
People of Kannur say that a murder like this has not taken place in the district since December 1, 1999, when a gang of Marxist killers hacked and stabbed to death then State Yuva Morcha vice-president KT Jayakrishnan, a primary schoolteacher, in front of his Class VI students at the East Mokeri UP School at Panur near Thalassery.
“What is causing fear about the possibility of more violent incidents in the coming days is the Assembly election (to be held in less than three months),” said a shopkeeper in Koothuparambu, one of the most politically volatile places in Kannur. “Kannur has seen escalation in violence during most elections. Here, violence is an election tool for parties,” he added.
Even police officials familiar with Kannur say that strong political parties here are in the habit of intimidating voters of rival parties in their respective pockets of influence during polls. “No party is innocent in this matter. The magnitude of it could be different as per the strength of the party, that is all,” said a former police officer who had served in Kannur for several years.
According to the BJP leadership, the murder of Sujith was part of a conspiracy the CPI(M) had hatched in order to divert attention from the detention of its district secretary P Jayarajan in the case pertaining to the murder of RSS leader Manoj of Elanthodath, Kathiroor in 2014.
Jayarajan, twenty-fifth accused in the case, is often accused of being the fountainhead of Marxist violence in Kannur. The CPI(M) leader had surrendered before a court in Thalassery on February 12 after the Kerala High Court rejected his application for anticipatory bail. The Thalassery court remanded Jayarajan, charged under UAPA provisions, in judicial custody till March 11.
On Wednesday, the CBI which is probing the case, withdrew the application it had submitted in the Thalassery court seeking Jayarajan’s custody for interrogation because of the delay in getting the medical report on his health condition. Jayarajan has been in hospital before and after his surrender for treatment for heart problems.