Thiruvananthapuram: Six days after the brutal murder of a local Congress leader in Kerala’s Kannur district, police are still on the hunt for the killers.
Meanwhile, two men surrendered before police at Malur, early on Sunday morning, identified as Thillenkery Akash and Rijin Raj. Congressmen alleged that the two were activists of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM). The two men are reportedly accused in another crime, too.
Congress leader K. Sudhakaran said the two men were only “dummies”, and that the CPM was only attempting to divert the investigation of the case. Sudhakaran is poised to begin an indefinite fast before the Kannur collectorate from Monday.
Youth Congress Mattannoor block secretary S.P. Shuhaib, 29, was hacked to death last week while he was having a snack at dinner time from a wayside joint. The post-mortem examination revealed that he had as many as 37 cuts on his body.
Eyewitnesses had said that the gang who attacked him had arrived in a newly purchased car, and that the gang had scared away onlookers by hurling country bombs before hacking Shuhaib to death.
Kerala’s ruling CPM party has denied that it had anything to do with Shuhaib’s killing, but a local television channel released visuals of the two men who surrendered before police in the company of CPM leaders, pointing to their links with CPM leaders.
The visuals showed the two men who surrendered standing alongside CPM leaders including party district secretary P. Jayarajan and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
The murdered Shuhaib’s father, Mohammad, has demanded that a Central Bureau of Investigation probe be conducted into his son’s killing.
Meanwhile, police are continuing their search and combing operations for the killers of Shuhaib. Their focus of investigation is around the Mattannoor and Edayannoor areas, and visuals from cameras in public areas in the area are being analysed to track down the culprits.
