Kerala Governor (Retd) Justice P. Sathasivam on Tuesday sought an urgent status report from Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on the police investigation into the murder of two Youth Congress workers near Periya in Kasaragod on Sunday night, said a release from the Governor's office.
Earlier in the day, senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Kerala Assembly Ramesh Chennithala had met the Governor and briefed him on the case.
Chennithala had also informed the Governor that the post of Additional Director General of Police, North, had been lying vacant for the past six-eight months and hence the monitoring of law and order in Kasargod district had been affected.
"It was in this context that the Governor sought an urgent report from the Chief Minister," said the release from the Governor's office.
Youth Congress workers Kripesh (22) and Sharath Lal (24) were attacked by three motorcycle-borne men while returning from an event on Sunday night. While Kripesh died at the Kasargod district hospital, Sharath succumbed to his injuries on his way to a medical facility in Mangaluru, Karnataka.
State Congress President Mullapally Ramachandran said, "If the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah team is finishing off its political rivals at the Centre, the Pinarayi Vijayan-Kodiyeri Balakrishnan team {state CPI (M) Secretary} is doing the same in Kerala."
"We demand the arrest of the real culprits as the CPI (M) has the practice of providing dummy accused in political murder cases," he added.
The Congress party plans to hold condolence meetings across the state on Wednesday evening to protest the two murders.
Meanwhile, the CPI (M) has gone on the defensive after A. Peethambaran, a prominent local CPI (M) leader, was arrested by the investigation team.
Peethambaran, who is alleged to have plotted the two murders, was reportedly dismissed from the party on Monday.
"None will be spared who have been part of the crime. Our party will not give protection to culprits. We demand strict action against all those who have done this crime," said CPI (M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan.
Breaking his silence on the murders for the first time, CM Pinarayi Vijayan who met the media in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday, said that it had almost become a habit for the state Congress to blame every murder in the state on the chief minister.
"As soon as the news of the crime came, we instructed senior police officials to ensure that no one is spared and everyone who has a role in this is brought to justice," said Pinarayi.