DGPs of Kerala and Puducherry inspect the murder site at Pallur in Mahe where a CPM worker was hacked to death: ManoramaKannur: The twin-murders that shook Mahe took place in a 5-km radius, within a mere 30 minutes.
Despite the geographic proximity, the crime spots fell in two different states.
While the CPM worker Kannippoyil Babu, was killed in Mahe in Puducherry state, the BJP activist Shamej was murdered in New Mahe, sitting on the border of Mahe and Kannur.
Babu’s murder is being probed by the Puducherry police, while the Kerala police are investigating the Shamej case.
While the police say that counting the cases togther as one can help make the investigation smoother, the political and administrative logjam may not make this very easy.
While the killing in Mahe is being investigated by Puducherry SP Devasikhamony, Thalassery CI K E Premachandran is in charge of the Shamej case.
It has been pointed out the coordination between the two police teams would help nab the murderers quicker.
Kerala police chief Loknath Behra and his Puducherry counterpart Sunil Kumar Gautam met in Thalassery, near Kannur, to discuss the case as investigating the murder in Mahe is the responsibility of Puducherry police.
"We had a meeting with the Kerala police chief and the probe has begun, with our team doing it," Gautham told the media.
Behra said: "We had a discussion on the incident and we have decided to cooperate to probe the case. We are sure that very soon the accused will be arrested."
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Kerala governor P Sathasivam on Wednesday sought a report from chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on the twin political murders that took place in the state's Kannur district and the nearby Mahe union territory.
According to informed sources, Sathasivam has asked Vijayan to include the action taken report, also, as there were reports of violence breaking out in certain parts of Mahe on Tuesday.
Kannur district, which is the home district of the chief minister, has always been a sensitive area politically and has seen 13 political murders after he assumed office in 2016.
Out of these, in eight cases, CPM workers have been named as accused while in four, it is those of the BJP-RSS. In one case, workers of the Social Democratic Party of India are the accused.
The second-largest constituent of the ruling Left Democratic Alliance - the Communist Party of India Wednesday expressed concern on what is happening.
CPI state secretary Kanam Rajendran said that even though several all party meetings have taken place, the situation again turns bad after a while.
"In the past four months, four political murders have taken place.. this is a cause of concern and the state government should act," he said.
