In yet another incident of communal tension in Kerala’s Kannur, 25 BJP cadres have been booked by the police for raising hate speech at a public rally. Visuals of the incident show several functionaries of the youth wing of the BJP taking out a march in Kannur, and threatening the Muslim community in the area by claiming that no more ‘azaan’ or call to prayer would be heard there anymore.

The march was held by the Yuva Morcha functionaries on the 21st death anniversary of KT Jayakrishnan, an office bearer of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha and a teacher at a school in Mokeri in Kannur. Jayakrishnan was hacked to death in front of his students on December 1, 1999 and a CPI(M) functionary was convicted for the murder. During the rally, the Yuva Morcha workers raised slogans that there won't be any mosques left in the area to do 'azaan' or hold prayers anymore.

The Thalassery police have booked a suo motu case against 25 people after hate speech was raised at the rally. The police said that the accused have been charged with 153 A of the Indian Penal Code, which stands for punishment for promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony.

Jayakrishnan’s death had sparked controversy and outrage across the state. In 2012, after the assassination of Communist leader TP Chandrasekharan, the prime accused had reportedly told the police that the arrests made in Jayakrishnan’s murder were pre-arranged by the CPI(M). Five of the accused in Jayalrishnan’s murder case were initially given the death sentence by a lower court in Thalassery. However, later, the Supreme Court acquitted four of them, and commuted the death sentence of the fifth accused to a life sentence. The fifth man, Pradeepan, a CPI(M) functionary was later released from prison.