An office-bearer of the Popular Front of India (PFI) was on Monday arrested in connection with the killing of an RSS worker in Palakkad district of Kerala, police said on Monday, November 22. District police chief R Viswanadh told reporters in Palakkad that the arrested activist was directly involved in the killing of A Sanjith at Mambaram in the district. Police said the other culprits would be arrested soon.
The identity of the office-bearer has not been disclosed as his identification parade has to be conducted as part of the investigation. The victim's wife had said she could identify the people who came in a car and killed her husband. Sanjith (27) was hacked to death on November 15 while he was taking his wife to her workplace, the police had said. Earlier on Monday, police said they have taken three people into custody.
The BJP and Sangh Parivar organisations have alleged that the activists of Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), the political offshoot of Islamist outfit Popular Front of India (PFI), were behind the broad daylight murder. SDPI has rejected the allegations.
Meanwhile, BJP State president K Surendran met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi seeking a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) into the killing.
In a letter to the Home Minister, a copy which was made known, the BJP leader alleged that 10 RSS-BJP activists were killed in Kerala by alleged jihadi groups in the last five years. He alleged that so far about 50 Sangh Parivar activists were killed by them in the State.
The police claimed the breakthrough in Sanjith's case amid protests by the BJP and the Sangh Parivar over the delay in arresting the culprits. Attacking the CPI(M)-led State government and the police, the BJP has sought a probe by the NIA into the killing.