With four more persons being apprehended in connection with the murder of a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader last month in Palakkad district, the police have so far made 20 arrests in the case.
Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Vijay Sakhare said of the four arrested on Tuesday evening, one was allegedly part of a six-member group which carried out the killing of RSS leader S.K. Srinivasan, 45, on April 16. Two persons of the attacking party remained to be arrested.
All the 20 arrested in the case were workers of or affiliated to the Popular Front of India (PFI) or its political offshoot Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), Mr. Sakhare said.
According to the police, Srinivasan was killed in retaliation for the murder of PFI leader Subair, 43, on April 15. In the Subair murder case, seven arrests had been made till date and all the accused were RSS workers.
Three of the accused in that case were friends of RSS leader Sanjith, who was murdered in the district in November last year, and had allegedly carried out the attack on the PFI leader. The remaining four were allegedly conspirators in the murder of Subair.
The police probe has revealed that Subair was killed to avenge the murder of Sanjith.
More arrests were likely in both the cases in the coming days and a chargesheet would be filed in each of them soon, the officer said.
Responding to a query on how the police planned to prevent such political revenge or retaliatory killings, Mr. Sakhare said while such pre-planned murders were difficult to prevent, they always took steps to ensure it did not flare up into a large-scale communal issue.
In December last, a leader of the SDPI and a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party were murdered in Alappuzha within 24 hours.
