The Kerala Police have taken into custody two more accused in the case related to the murder of Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) activist Mansur in Kannur. Mansur died on the day of elections - April 6, after a group of men hurled a bomb at him while attacking him and his brother Muhsin.
On Saturday, the police nabbed Sreerag, fourth accused in the case, and Aswath, seventh accused in the case, from the Kozhikode-Kannur border. Both the accused are reported to have been part of the group which attacked Mansur and Muhsin. The duo have been taken into custody and will be interrogated by the police. However, their arrest has not yet been recorded.
On April 7, Shinos, a leader of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) - youth wing of the CPI(M) and Mansur’s neighbour, was arrested by the police. On Saturday morning, another alleged CPI(M) worker Aneesh was picked up and taken into custody. Shinos has been arrested and remanded to judicial custody. With this, four of the 11 accused in the Mansur murder case have been identified.
On Saturday, Mansur’s brother Muhsin, who was also attacked and later hospitalised, gave a statement to the police regarding the incident. Kannur Crime Branch DySP K Ismail visited Muhsin’s residence near Panoor and took his statement. According to reports, Muhsin also identified the two accused who have been taken into custody.
Apart from this, one of the suspects in the Mansur case was also found dead on Friday. The deceased, identified as Ratheesh Koloth, was found dead in the Valayam police station limits in Kozhikode.
Ratheesh is suspected to have taken his own life. A case of unnatural death was registered. Ratheesh, a native of Panoor, was reportedly second accused in the case. He was also Mansur's neighbour.
The state police had on Thursday handed over the case to the district crime branch and a 15-member team initiated a probe into the incident.
Among the 24-member gang that was suspected to have attacked Mansoor, police identified 11 accused. Shinos, Ratheesh, Sangeeth, Sreerag, Suhail, Sajeev, Aswath, Sasi, Sumesh, Jabir and Nasar are the accused listed in the First Information Report (FIR).
Among them, nine of them are yet to be arrested. Some of the accused are local leaders of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). As per reports, Jabir is a local committee member, Suhail is a DYFI worker and Sasi is branch secretary of CPI(M) Kochangadi. Most of the accused are reportedly active CPI(M) workers.
On Saturday, Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala along with UDF’s PK Kunhalikutty, K Sudhakaran and Sadiqali Shihab Thangal visited Mansur’s house in Kannur. The Opposition leader also alleged that there were attempts to sabotage the probe in the case.