SDPI leader, BJP functionary killed in a span of 12 hours in Kerala; 50 people in custody

Alappuzha/Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala's coastal Alappuzha district was rocked by back-to-back killings of two party leaders, the first belonging to the SDPI and the second to the BJP, leading to clamping of prohibitory orders by police on Sunday.

Following the killing of an SDPI state secretary, a BJP leader was hacked to death subsequently in 12 hours and prohibitory order under CrPC Section 144 was imposed in the entire Alappuzha district on Sunday, district officials said.

Subsequently, police took into custody around 50 people, including anti-social elements, the general public as well as workers of BJP, RSS and SDPI, IG Harshita Attaluri told reporters.

Earlier in the day, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan as well as leaders of other political parties in the state had condemned the killings. The CM said steps will be taken by the police to nab the culprits and those behind them.

Subsequently, State Police Chief (SPC) Anil Kant, told the media that senior police officers were camping in the district and additional forces have been deployed there.

The back to back killings also led to a lot of blame game amongst the parties with the SDPI blaming RSS for the killing of its state secretary, KS Shan, and the BJP accusing the former of the murder of its leader.

BJP State unit president K Surendran alleged that the Chief Minister was supporting the Popular Front of India (PFI), whose political outfit is the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), as in many municipal corporations in the state the CPI(M) and SDPI were actively supporting each other. He, however, did not specify which were these corporations and the CPI(M) has not reacted to this statement by him.

Congress and the UDF opposition led by it, on the other hand, alleged that both BJP and SDPI were out to create communal disharmony in the state in order to make political space for themselves here and therefore, the state government and the people of Kerala should stay away from such groups.

Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly V D Satheesan said that the agenda of these groups was to divide the state along communal lines and that the Left government should take stringent action against them.

KPCC president and Congress MP K Sudhakaran, in a statement, also blamed the Left government's alleged support of SDPI and RSS for such "political killings".

SDPI's Kerala president, meanwhile, issued a statement refuting allegations that it was behind the killing of the BJP leader. The outfit said it was not going to take another person's life in retaliation for Shan's death and that it has faith in the rule of law in the country.

Subsequently, M K Faizy, National President of SDPI, in a Facebook post, condemned Shan's murder and alleged that it was meticulously planned by the RSS which was trying to contaminate the harmonious communal ambience in the state.

SDPI state secretary Shan was brutally attacked on Saturday night while he was on his way back home. He was on his way home when a car rammed into his bike and as he fell down, the assailants inflicted around 40 injuries on him leading to his death, police said.

Shan succumbed to his injuries at a Kochi hospital around midnight, police said. Hours later, BJP's OBC Morcha state secretary Ranjith Sreenivasan was hacked to death by some assailants who barged into his house on Sunday morning.

Police said it suspects the fatal attack on Sreenivas, also a member of the BJP state committee, to be in retaliation to the killing of Shan.