Six CPI(M) workers were on Wednesday night arrested in connection with the brutal murder of a 27-year-old RSS worker in poll-bound Kerala’s Kannur district.
Police identified those arrested as Srijayan, Joy Joseph, Prasanth, Prabesh, Libin and Akash, all residents of the district.
Police said a 20-member gang was involved in the fatal attack on Sujit, carried out on Monday night.
The CPI(M) workers had barged into the house of Sujit at Papinesseri in the district and brutally hacked him in front of his aged parents and brother, who also suffered injuries. Sujit later succumbed to injuries.
While BJP had slammed CPI(M) for the attack, the Marxist party had denied it saying it was the fallout of a local incident relating to insulting a girl.
BJP had maintained that CPI(M) was behind the attack, to get over the embarrassment of the arrest of its party district secretary, P Jayarajan, an accused in the murder of a BJP functionary in 2014.
The violence comes after a lull in Kannur, which frequently witnesses clashes between CPI(M) and BJP.
On Wednesday morning, country bombs had been hurled at an RSS seva kendra and at the house of a BJP worker in Thalassery in the district. Fortunately, no one was injured.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)