11 RSS Workers Convicted In 2013 Kerala Murder Case

Eleven RSS workers, including a state-level leader of Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), were sentenced to life imprisonment in the 2013 murder of a man in Thiruvananthapuram's Anavoor by a Kerala sessions court on Monday.

The Neyyattinkara additional sessions court found the accused guilty nine years after the victim Narayanan Nair was murdered in front of his family.

Narayanan Nair's son Siva Prasad was the area secretary of the Students Federation of India or SFI, the student wing of the CPM.

A gang of armed men, said police, barged into Narayanan Nair's house on November 5, 2013, with the intention to murder his son Siva Prasad. However, they were stopped by Narayanan Nair, who was hacked to death in front of his wife and two sons, said police.

Siva Prasad and his brother were severely injured in the incident. The attack was in retaliation to a previous political skirmish in the area, reports said.

The accused men found guilty by the court are KSRTC Employees Sangh (BMS) state secretary Vellamkolli Rajesh (47), RSS Pracharak Anil (32), Prem Kumar (36), Prasad Kumar (35), Gireesh Kumar (41), Arun Kumar (36), Baiju (42), Sajikumar (43), Ajayan (33), Binu (43) and Gireesh (48).

All accused arrived at the court wearing identical clothes and sporting same hairstyles. Those with bald heads were given similar hair wigs to confuse the witnesses. However, they were all identified, a Deshabhimani report said.