4 held for murder of Kerala CPI-M worker

Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 3 (IANS) Hours after a young CPI-M worker was murdered by a criminal gang at Peringara in Kerala's Pathanamthitta district, the police have arrested four accused.

The incident occurred around 8.30 p.m. on Thursday night when a five-member gang attacked 32-year-old P.B. Sandip, who was sitting on a small bridge near his house at Peringara, police said.

The gang, riding on bikes, pushed Sandip down and slashed him with swords and country knives.

Sandip was then dumped into the nearby area. Hearing his shouts for help, when the locals came rushing, all the five left the spot and escaped.

Sandip was taken to the hospital, but he breathed his last.

The CPI-M state secretariat blamed the RSS for destroying the peace in the area by engaging in brutal killing and the local party leadership gave a call for a dawn to dusk shutdown in the locality on Friday.

After the locals identified two attackers, the police quickly traced four accused and took them into custody.

The arrested include 23-year-old Jishnu and Pramod, 24-year-old Nandu and 22-year-old Faizal and the fifth person is a local and is on the run. All of them have had a criminal past, according to the police.

Meanwhile, the police after interrogating the four arrested, said Jishnu had confessed that Sandip by using his political clout was trying to take away his (Jishnu) mother's job at a state-run PSU. The crime was done out of vengeance, said the police.

While the CPI-M leadership has slammed the RSS for creating unrest, the RSS have denied any role in it.