On Friday, the Kerala Police arrested four members of the Islamist organization Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) for murdering an RSS leader in Kerala’s Palakkad district last week. The accused have been identified as Muhammad Bilal, Muhammad Rizwan, Riyassuddin, and Sahad.
SDPI is the political wing of the radical Islamist organisation PFI.
The murder victim SK Sreenivasan was a former Physical Education instructor of the RSS. He was murdered by a group of 6 assailants who arrived on three bikes. They hacked him to death inside his shop in the Melamuri area of Palakkad with sharp weapons. According to eyewitnesses, the attackers were armed with machetes and attacked him several times, inflicting multiple fatal injuries.
Muhammad Bilal, Muhammad Rizwan, Riyassuddin, Sahad – Four PFI Killers involved in brutal murder of @RSSorg leader Srinivasanji under arrest pic.twitter.com/1IHyHFTfeg
— HKupdate (@HKupdate) April 21, 2022
BJP state leader Krishnakumar had stated that the radical Islamic organization Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) was behind the attack. SDPI is the political wing of the Islamist organization Popular Front of India (PFI) which is banned in several parts of India. The BJP leader had further said that they had received threat calls after the murder of SDPI activist Subair. The Police also suspected that the death of the RSS worker was a retaliatory attack. Reportedly, the RSS leader was murdered within 24 hours of SDPI worker Subair’s death.
According to the reports, the Kerala Police had initiated a massive manhunt to nab the culprits who had fled after brutally murdering SK Sreenivasan on April 16. The police had also warned that stern action would be taken against those who try to incite communal tension through social media in the backdrop of the Palakkad murders.
Accordingly, the state police chief had issued instructions to monitor social media activity in the state to control the spread of fake news that might have incited communal tensions. However, this is not the first time that SDPI workers have targeted the BJP leaders or RSS leaders.
Earlier in December last year, the SDPI workers had reportedly murdered BJP leader Ranjith Sreenivasan in the Alappuzha district of Kerala. The perpetrators had broken into Sreenivasan’s house in the wee hours on December 19 and hacked him to death. Also, on November 15, a 26-year-old RSS worker A. Sanjith was hacked to death, reportedly by the SDPI goons. Sanjith, a native of Elappully was killed while he was going to work on his motorcycle with his wife.
The Police on Friday arrested four out of six murderers in the recent case and have assured to arrest of the other two members of the group. The Police have charged the culprits under the relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.
