Alappuzha murders: Kerala police unable to make headway

The Kerala police are yet to make any breakthrough in the investigation into the killing of BJP state leader and noted lawyer of Alappuzha bar Ranjith Sreenivasan.

Sreenivasan was brutally murdered at his residence in front of his mother, wife, and two daughters on December 19.

He was first hit with a hammer on his face by a 12-member assailant team of the Social Democratic Party of India, (SDPI). They then attacked him repeatedly with machete and swords killing him instantly.

The crime was in retaliation to the killing of SDPI state secretary K S Shan who was hacked to death allegedly by RSS men on December 18 night. He was first hit with a vehicle and then hacked to death.

Also Read | Alappuzha murders: Kerala government under fire for lack of arrests

Alleging that while 12 people, including senior leaders of the RSS, were arrested for Shan's murder, only four SDPI men were arrested in the murder of Ranjith Sreenivasan, the BJP claimed that the police and the CPI-M were trying to save the SDPI workers.

ADGP of Kerala police Vijay Sakhare admitted that the SDPI criminals were getting support from outside the state and that the killers of Ranjith may be under such support.

BJP state president K Surendran while speaking to IANS, said, "It is a clear case of CPM and the Chief Minister directly supporting the killing squad of SDPI as the Left party had entered into a clandestine political deal with the SDPI during the 2021 Assembly elections and now the CPI-M is reciprocating the SDPI by not arresting the criminals involved in the murder."

BJP and RSS are planning mammoth protest marches across the state against the SDPI, CPI-M, Police alliance and to expose this before the people of the state of Kerala.

However, political observers have dismissed the claims of BJP and said that both the SDPI and RSS are two sides of the same coin and they thrive because of each other.

R Rajendran, a political observer from Kannur, told IANS, "It was earlier the killing fields of Kannur but now the killings have shifted to central Kerala. In Kannur, the killings were mainly between the CPI-M and RSS but the victims were mostly from the OBC, Thiyya community but now the situation is different, it is turning into a Hindu-Muslim communal fight that has to be crushed before it gets out of hands."

After criticisms against Kerala police started pouring in, the state police have effected a major shakeup with several police officers losing their positions and new faces replacing them.

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