KOCHI: Police on Saturday changed their stance that personal rivalry led to the murder of CPM Peringara local committee secretary PB Sandeep Kumar and added political rivalry as one of the reasons behind the brutal killing that happened on Thursday night.
According to sources, police said in a remand report submitted before the judicial first class magistrate court in Thiruvalla on Friday that the prime accused, Jishnu Raghu was an active member of the Yuva Morcha and that three among the remaining four accused including Nandu and his brother Abhijith were active members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Police have reportedly said in the report that the prime accused had nursed a personal as well as political grudge towards the victim. As per the report, the accused unleashed a violent attack on Sandeep with the intention to kill him. The court had remanded the accused in judicial custody for 14 days and shifted them to a Covid-19 care centre in Alappuzha.
The investigation team had managed to arrest all accused involved, in a matter of hours, but the police ruling out political motivation behind the attack had invited the ire of CPM, the ruling party. From local leaders to party secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan had taken a strong stand against the police and said that it was improper for police to rule out political conspiracy behind the murder even before completing the investigation.
Sandeep Kumar was hacked and stabbed to death by the five-member gang late on Thursday. The accused were booked for offences including murder, unlawful assembly, and criminal intimidation, among others. The police will soon move an application to get custody of the accused for interrogation.
Meanwhile, the BJP on Saturday came out with strong criticism of the police move. BJP leader MT Ramesh said in a press meet at Kozhikode that the police changed their stance after Kodiyeri’s press meet. He also said that the chief minister did not mention the name of RSS in his Facebook post as he had received the correct information.
“The district police chief had said categorically to the media that this was a murder executed due to personnel animosity. However, CPM and DYFI leaders were showing an usual urgency to put the blame of this murder on BJP and RSS…Even after everyone realised what has happened, CPM is still blaming RSS for it. People will soon realise this inhumane attitude in the CPM stand,” said Ramesh.
He claimed that except one accused, all others who were arrested in the case were either CPM workers or sympathisers. “Three among them are natives of Thiruvalla. Only two of them are from outside the district. They are unable to allege anything that can connect them with BJP or RSS. Not only that they have no connection with us, they are also CPM workers,” said Ramesh.
He added that a BJP connection can only be found in the case of the accused Jishnu. “He used to be the Yuva Morcha president in his panchayat. Due to his connections with such criminal activities and following allegations of his links with some drug peddlers in the area, he was removed from his position in Yuva Morcha, two years ago. After that he didn’t have any connections with BJP. The four others are CPM workers and two of them are brothers. They had campaigned for CPM in the elections and CPM had helped them in constructing a house,” said Ramesh, adding that their social media profiles were strong evidence for their allegiances.
