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SDPI’s Delhi bank account frozen in murder probe
During the investigation, the special investigation team (SIT) found that the absconding regional secretary of PFI in Pattambi (Palakkad), Abdul Rasheed, the 11th accused in the Sreenivasan murder case, used to draw money from a private bank, and it was sent from a public sector bank in Delhi. Later, it was found that the Canara bank branch in Delhi’s Bhogal is being operated by the SDPI central committee.
A bank account of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), the political wing of the Popular Front of India (PFI), in New Delhi was frozen after the investigating team probing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader KS Sreenivasan’s murder reportedly found that one of the absconding accused used to get money from this account.
During the investigation, the special investigation team (SIT) found that the absconding regional secretary of PFI in Pattambi (Palakkad), Abdul Rasheed, the 11th accused in the Sreenivasan murder case, used to draw money from a private bank, and it was sent from a public sector bank in Delhi. Later, it was found that the Canara bank branch in Delhi’s Bhogal is being operated by the SDPI central committee.
On April 16, local RSS leader Sreenivasan was hacked to death in his shop in Melamuri in Palakkad allegedly by SDPI workers as a retaliation to the murder of the SDPI activist M Subair in the district a day ago.
The SIT found that Rasheed used to receive ₹13,200 regularly in the last few months from the Delhi account, and this money was eventually withdrawn from a private bank in Pattambi. The SIT said Rasheed, regional secretary of the PFI, was one of the key planners of the murder, and he drove the red car in which the assailants travelled with weapons.
Later, they shifted to three motorcycles, barged into Sreenivasan’s shop, killed him in a few seconds and fled, the SIT said. The SDPI is yet to comment on the latest development.
The Enforcement Directorate had frozen some accounts of the PFI last month
Among the 26 accused, 25 have been arrested, and the SIT submitted the charge sheet to Palakkad First class Judicial Magistrate court on July 12.
According to people close to developments, the conspiracy to murder Sreenivasan was hatched at Palakkad general hospital mortuary where the body of slain SDPI leader Subair was kept for post-mortem.
The SIT also filed the charge sheet against 12 RSS-BJP leaders in connection with the killing of Subair.
“We carried out a scientific investigation in both cases and filed a charge sheet in record time,” said additional director general of police Vijay Sakhre who supervised the probe.
Since last December, four workers, two of RSS and SDPI, were killed in retaliatory attacks by both in the state.
In Alappuzha, SDPI secretary A S Shan and Bharatiya Janata Party (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 also sought details of the banks.
Last week, Bihar police arrested three workers of the Popular Front of India (PFI) and seized “subversive documents” from them. During the 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. The majority of the PFI leaders are from Kerala and some of them were former members of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).
