2 more held in Kerala RSS leader's murder case, total arrests reach 11

Two more persons were arrested in connection with the killing of an Rasthriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader recently in Palakkad district, bringing the total number of arrests in the case to 11 till date, the Kerala police said on Monday.

ADGP (Law and Order) Vijay Sakhare told PTI that the police have also taken into custody a person suspected to be involved in the killing of RSS leader Sanjith in the district in November last year.

"He is only a suspect now. We will be questioning him. We have not arrested him," Sakhare said.

Sanjith's death was apparently the reason behind the killing of Popular Front of India leader Subair (43) on April 15 allegedly by some friends of the RSS leader, the police had said earlier.

Ramesh, a very close friend of Sanjith, along with two others had allegedly planned and also carried out the murder of Subair as he believed that the PFI leader was responsible for his friend's death.

All three of them were RSS workers, police had said.

In retaliation for Subair's killing, RSS leader S K Srinivasan (45) was killed on April 16.

The two persons who were arrested on Monday were allegedly the conspirators involved in Srinivasan's murder, while five out of the six attackers are still at large, the ADGP said.

The senior officer had earlier said those involved in Srinivasan's murder had initially made attempts to kill two other RSS leaders and on failing to find their intended targets, who had gone into hiding, they targeted Srinivasan.

Most of the arrested accused in the Srinivasan case are workers of the PFI and its political offshoot Social Democratic Party of India, the police said.

Srinivasan, a former district leader and office-bearer of RSS, was attacked by a six-member gang at his motorbike shop in Melamuri near Palakkad on April 16, 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 April 15 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 BJP were murdered in Alappuzha within 24 hours.