The police arrested three people on Monday for their alleged role in the murder of a member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) near Mahe, an exclave of Puducherry located in Kerala, reported PTI. The Mahe police have confirmed the arrests but have not provided details of those arrested.
On May 7, Babu Kannippoyil, a former municipal councillor of Mahe, was hacked to death when he was on his way to a temple in Pallur. On the same day, Shanej Parambath of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh was stabbed to death. The murders led to tension in the area.
On May 13, a few people, including Bharatiya Janata Party workers, protested outside the Mahe police station against the custody of a man held for his alleged role in the murder of Babu Kannippoyil, reported The Hindu. The man was taken into custody reportedly on his wedding day. An unidentified police official said, “We have taken some people for interrogation and we released most of them after questioning them for one or two hours.”
Political violence
There have been several such incidents of right-wing and left-wing activists being attacked in Kerala over the past decade and a half. There are no official figures, but data obtained from a Right to Information query showed that both sides lost at least 30 workers each between 2000 and 2016. Kannur alone reported 69 political murders in this period.
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