Police said one more accused is on the run. (Representational)
Kerala police today arrested four people, including a "former" RSS worker, among the five accused in the murder case of a CPI(M) local secretary at Peringara near here.
P B Sandeep Kumar, who is also a former panchayat member, was stabbed to death here on Thursday night.
Police have arrested prime accused and RSS worker Jishnu Chathankari (23), Pramod (23), Nandu (24) and Mohammed Faisal (22). Another accused, Abhi, is on the run, police added.
The first three accused were apprehended from Karuvatta in Alappuzha district whereas Faisal was held from a lodge at Thiruvalla.
The hideouts of the accused were triangulated based on information gathered and with the location of the cell phone tower, police said.
Meanwhile, the BJP today said that the worker was earlier ousted from the party and RSS does not have any connection with the murder.
The CPI(M) has called for a strike in Thiruvalla municipality and adjacent panchayats protesting against the murder.
Reacting to the incident, the CPI(M) state secretariat had issued a statement blaming the RSS and demanded a thorough investigation into the matter.
According to the police, the incident occurred at around 8.30 pm yesterday.
Police had said there were 11 stab wounds on the body of the victim who died before reaching a hospital.
After the victim tried to settle a dispute between the accused -- who were allegedly drunk -- and a shop owner, his bike was chased and he was stabbed multiple times, said the police.
Kumar is survived by his wife and two minor children.
After the post-mortem, the body was handed over to relatives which was taken to the CPI(M) party office in a procession with hundreds of party workers accompanying.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)