SDPI leader, BJP functionary killed in Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 19 (PTI):
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, general public as well as workers of BJP, RSS and SDPI, IG Harshita Attaluri told reporters. The officer said that not all of the persons in custody are culprits and that the police was “examining and investigating” the two cases.
She said there has been no lapse or intelligence on the part of the police which had swung into action right after the assault on the SDPI leader and added that “we cannot give protection to every house”.
The police will take action against those behind the crimes irrespective of whether they are political bigwigs, anti-social elements or members of the public. A big force of police personnel and senior officers have been deployed in the district and that is why they were able to find out a lot of details, she added. The officer said that soon they will ascertain the motive behind the killings. 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.
He said that ADGP-Law and Order would be heading the probe into the two killings and that the police would soon be rounding up troublemakers, ‘goondas’ and their leaders in the area to prevent another such incident from happening in the near future.
Kant also said that a state-wide alert has been announced and all District Police Chiefs have been directed to closely monitor the law and order situation there and if required, prohibitory orders would be imposed and additional forces would be deployed.
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, K S Shan, and the BJP accusing the former for the murder of its leader. The Congress, in turn, blamed both BJP and SDPI for the situation and said they were out to divide the state on communal lines.
BJP MP and Union Minister of State for External Affairs and Parliamentary Affairs V Muraleedharan and the party’s Kerala president K Surendran blamed the SDPI and lapses on the part of the state government and police for the death of its OBC Morcha state secretary Ranjeet Sreenivas. Muraleedharan denied the allegation that RSS or BJP was behind Shan’s death and alleged that the Left government in Kerala was giving a free hand to extremist groups and this was making things worse in the state.