Police arrest 4 PFI-SDPI workers for RSS leader's murder in Kerala

Two days after arresting three Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh workers for the murder of a Popular Front of India leader in Palakkad, the police on Thursday recorded the arrest of four Social Democratic Party of India-PFI workers in connection with the retaliatory killing of an RSS leader in Palakkad district of Kerala.

Additional director general of police (law and order) Vijay Sakhare told PTI that the arrested four were present at the scene of the crime, but had not directly participated in the attack on RSS leader SK Srinivasan (45) on April 16.

Also, he confirmed that the four were workers of the PFI and its political offshoot -- SDPI.

The senior police officer said the four, after interrogation, revealed their roles and that the police now knows all the participants, conspirators and collaborators involved in the killing of the RSS leader.

"We know about 14-15 people involved in the incident, and the number is expected to go up as the investigation progresses. There will be more arrests," Sakhare said.

On Tuesday, the police recorded the arrests of three RSS workers all of whom were friends of RSS leader Sanjith who was killed in the district in November last.

The police had said it believed the murder of PFI leader Subair (43) on April 15 was to avenge the death of Sanjith and the killing was planned by his close friend Ramesh, who is one of the three accused arrested by the agency.

Sakhare had said that according to the accused Sanjith, before his death, had said that if anything happens to him, Subair would be behind it.

However, the investigation into Sanjith's killing had not disclosed Subair's involvement, the senior officer had pointed out.

Sakhare had, on Monday, said that among the culprits identified in both the cases so far, there were party members or workers from both PFI-SDPI and BJP-RSS.

Srinivasan, a former district leader and office-bearer of RSS, was attacked by a six-member gang at his motorbike shop in Melamuri near here on Saturday, barely 24 hours after Subair was hacked to death at

Elappully in the district while he was returning home along with his father after offering prayers in a mosque on Friday afternoon.

The back-to-back killings involving BJP/RSS and SDPI/PFI is the second such incident in the past few months in Kerala.

In December last, a leader of the SDPI and a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party were murdered in Alappuzha within 24 hours.