The Thrissur police on Tuesday nabbed Nandan, the prime accused in the murder of CPI(M) branch secretary PU Sanoop. Nandan was arrested around 4 pm from a hideout in Thrissur, according to reports. He is the first accused in the crime as per the FIR (first information report), while Maron is the second and Abayjith is the third accused. The FIR also mentions other accused persons.
Twenty-six-year-old Sanoop, who was the branch secretary of the CPI(M) Puthussery Colony Branch in Thrissur, was stabbed to death on Sunday around 10.30 pm near Chittilangad near Erumapatty in Thrissur. Three of the accused are natives of Erumapatty.
Sanoop, along with three of his party colleagues, had gone to Chittilangad on Sunday night to meet a friend, who reportedly had some differences with the local BJP workers in the area. They went to help the friend sort out the differences. The discussion with the BJP workers reportedly turned violent.
“They all ran when things got worse. Sanoop took a pocket road while others ran through the main road. Sanoop didn’t know the road thoroughly and he couldn’t escape. He was hit on the head from behind, and there was blood on the road as he ran,” Anoop MP, the secretary of CPI(M)’s Puthussery branch and a colleague of Sanoop, told TNM. Sanoop was with Anoop till evening on Sunday. Abhijeet, Vibhoot and Jitin, who are also active CPI(M) workers, had gone to Chittilangad along with Sanoop.
The party distributes the food to Thrissur government medical college hospital on a daily basis. Every regional committee needs to arrange for food distribution once in six months. The party workers arrange food from the houses in the neighbourhood. It was the turn of the Puthussery regional unit to arrange for food for the patients of the hospital on Monday.
“This time, the work was hard as we had to arrange 300 food packets than the usual 150 packets as some of the party units couldn’t pitch in as many were in quarantine due to COVID-19. We were busy with this on Sunday, too, as we had to distribute the food on Monday,” Anoop said.
“Sanoop went from one house to another in the neighbourhood to arrange for food packets. We met at Puthussery at 8 pm on Sunday. By 12 am, I got a call from my younger brother, saying that Thakkudu was no more,” Abhilash told TNM.
Sanoop was always busy helping people
Sanoop lost his mother at the age of three and his father at the age of five. Fondly called as Thakkudu, he lived in his aunt’s house along with other family members.
Sanoop was a daily wage worker who used to work as a mason. He would work only three days in a week. The rest of the week, he would be busy helping people in the area.
If someone asked him why he was not regular to work, he would say that he has “the local people and the party to take care of”.
“He used to come with me only for work. There is no one in the entire Kunnamkulam region who doesn’t know Sanoop. Politics was not a barrier for him to build and foster friendship,” recalled Anoop.