Sec 144 in Kerala’s Alappuzha after SDPI, BJP leaders killed in span of 12 hours

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has condemned the murders and a police probe is underway.
A collage of the SDPI and BJP workers killed in Alappuzha in Kerala
A collage of the SDPI and BJP workers killed in Alappuzha in Kerala
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Kerala's coastal Alappuzha district was rocked by back-to-back killings of two party leaders, the first belonging to the Socialist Democratic Party of India (SDPI) and the second to the BJP, leading to clamping of prohibitory order by the police on Sunday, December 19.

Following the killing of an SDPI state secretary, a BJP leader was hacked to death within 12 hours and prohibitory order under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) was imposed across Alappuzha district on Sunday, district officials said.

KS Shan, the state secretary of the SDPI in Kerala, was brutally attacked on Saturday, December 18, at Mannancherry in the district while he was on his way home and his party alleged that the RSS was behind it. The SDPI leader was on his way home when a car rammed into his bike and as he fell down, the assailants assaulted him leading to his death, police said. Shan succumbed to his injuries at a Kochi hospital around midnight, police said.

Hours later, BJP's OBC Morcha's state secretary Ranjit Sreenivas was hacked to death in his home by some assailants who barged into his house on Sunday morning, police said. Police said it suspects the fatal attack on Ranjith, also a member of the BJP state committee, was in retaliation to the killing of Shan. With the BJP's leader's killing, prohibitory order was clamped. Eleven people have reportedly been taken into custody, in the murder of Ranjit Sreenivas.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has strongly condemned the twin murders. He has said that the police will act sternly to nab the culprits and those behind them. “These kinds of narrow and inhuman violent acts are dangerous for a land. It’s sure that the people will realise and isolate the murderers and their hate moves,” the CM said in a statement.

With PTI inputs

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