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Kerala RSS leader’s murder: Bank account of SDPI central office in Delhi frozen
The investigating team probing Kerala RSS leader A. Sreenivasan’s murder reportedly found that one of the absconding accused used to get money from the bank account operated by the SDPI central committee in Delhi
A bank account of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), a political wing of the Popular Front of India (PFI), in New Delhi was frozen after the investigating team probing Kerala Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader A. Sreenivasan’s murder reportedly found that one of the absconding accused used to get money from this account, officials familiar with the matter said on Sunday.
During investigation, the special investigation team (SIT) found that absconding regional secretary of PFI in Pattambi, Abdul Rasheed, the 11th accused in Sreenivasan murder case, used to draw money from a private bank and it was sent from a public sector bank in Delhi. It was found that the Canara bank branch in Delhi’s Bhogal is being operated by the SDPI central committee.
On April 16, RSS local leader Sreenivasan was hacked to death in his shop in Melamuri in Palakkad district allegedly by SDPI workers as a retaliation to the murder of SDPI activist M Subair in the same district. In 24 hours, the district witnessed two back- to- back political killings.
SIT found that Rasheed used to receive ₹13,200 in last few months from the Delhi account and this money was eventually withdrawn from a private bank in Pattambi. SIT said Rasheed was one of the key planners of the murder and he drove the red car on which the assailants travelled with weapons. They were shifted to three motor cycles and they barged into the shop of Sreenivasan and killed him in a few seconds and fled, SIT said. The SDPI is yet to comment on the latest development. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had frozen some accounts of the PFI last month.
Among the 26 accused, 25 have been arrested and SIT submitted the charge sheet on July 12. It said conspiracy to murder Sreenivasan was hatched at Palakkad general hospital mortuary where the body of slain Subair, SDPI leader, was kept for the post-mortem. SIT also filed the charge sheet against 12 RSS-BJP leaders in connection with the killing of Subair. “We carried out scientific investigation in both cases and filed charge sheet in record time,” said additional director general of police Vijay Sakhre who supervised the probe.
Since last December, 2 RSS workers and 2 SDPI workers were killed in retaliatory attacks in the state. In Alapuzha, SDPI secretary A S Shan and BJP OBC Morcha state secretary Ranjith Sreenivasan were hacked to death in less than 12 hours on December 19.
A senior SIT official, who did not want to be named, said central agencies have also sought details of the banks. Last week, the Bihar police arrested three workers of the PFI and seized “subversive documents” from them. During investigation police found that some of the arrested were in regular touch with leaders of the PFI in Kerala.
The PFI, which claims it has branches in 22 states, was launched in Kerala in 2006 after merging three Muslim fundamentalist outfits floated in the wake of the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992-- the National Development Front in Kerala, Karnataka Forum for Dignity and Manitha Neethi Pasarai of Tamil Nadu. Majority of the PFI leaders are from Kerala and some of them are former members of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).
The PFI calls itself as a neo-social movement committed to empower people belonging to the minority communities, Dalits and other weaker sections of the society and in a short span it became popular among Muslim youth. “Live with pride” is its so-called motto which attracted many to it, said police officials adding its growth was baffling.
