Thiruvanathapuram:
Kerala Police have arrested five people, including a CPM activist for their alleged involvement in the murder of a former party leader in north Kerala. TP Chandrashekaran, who quit the CPM a few years ago and launched an outfit called the Revolutionary Marxist Party, was murdered in Kozhikode on May 4.
According to police, Padayankani Raveendran, a member of CPM's Orkatteri local committee, identified 51-year-old Chandrashekaran to the killers. The other four suspects - Pradeepan, Dipin, Ramesh and Rejith - helped arrange the murder weapons and also helped the killers hide the weapons after the crime, police said.
Police have recovered the weapons used for the murder from Chokli in neighbouring Kannur district. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing Chandrashekaran's murder on Saturday issued lookout circulars for 12 persons, including the prime accused, Payappadi Rafeeq and NK Sunil Kumar, alias Kodi Suni, in connection with the case.
The arrests came just hours after the CPM's state secretariat issued a statement stating that its cadre had no role in Chandrashekaran's murder. The statement also asked party cadres to be cautious against attempts to malign the party by implicating it in a murder case.
Chandrasekharan, was murdered at Onchiyam in Kozhikode while he was returning home on a motorcycle. He was a CPM leader in the area till 2008 and had quit the party and formed Revolutionary Marxist Party, which defeated the CPM in the village council polls in Onchiyam.
CPM state Secretary Pinarayi had recently termed Chandrashekaran a "betrayer," triggering a major row within the party. Leader of the Opposition VS Achuthanandan openly challenged Vijayan's stand and hailed Chandrashekaran as a "brave communist." Achuthanandan even equated Vijayan's attitude towards party rebels to the stand taken by late communist leader S A Dange during the split in the Communist Party in 1964.