Kasaragod: The UDF has emerged victorious in the Kalliyot ward where two Youth Congress leaders Kripesh and Sharatlal were brutally murdered in early 2019.   

As counting of votes of the civic polls progressed on Wednesday, the UDF is also leading in the Kasaragod Municipality. During the campaign, the UDF had raised the brutal murder as the main campaign issue.

The twin murder had shocked the state just ahead of the Lok Sabha elections and likely played a role in the victory of the Congress candidate then.

The UDF victory is a major setback for the LDF which tried desperately to retain the Kalliyot ward of the Pullur-Periya panchayat. 

CPM had won from the ward in the last civic polls in 2015.

CPM activists are the main accused in the murder case. Though the state government had gone up till Supreme Court to oppose a CBI probe into the murders, its petition was rejected by the apex court.

A team of CBI officials which visited Kalliyot the other day had recreated the murder scene of Sharatlal and Kripesh as part of the probe. The investigation is being carried out by a team led by CBI SP Nandakumar.

Youth Congress activists Sarath Lal (24) and Kripesh (19) were hacked to death allegedly by CPM workers on February 17, 2019.