Alappuzha: Five individuals were arrested in the Ranjith murder case on Tuesday.

Mannanchery natives Nishad, Asif, Sudheer, Arshad and Ali are among those arrested. Though all of them are SDPI activists, the police is yet to confirm this.

While one individual was directly involved in the crime, the others were involved in aiding and abetting  in the commission of the crime, Manorama News reported.

The accused are being interrogated by a team led by the IG.

Meanwhile, the Crime Branch has taken over from local police the probe into the murder of two political functionaries — KS Shan, a state secretary of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), and Ranjeet Sreenivas, a state-level office-bearer of BJP’s Other Backward Classes outfit, OBC Morcha.

The police suspect clear planning and conspiracy in executing the back-to-back murders of SDPI and BJP leaders within 12 hours in Alappuzha.

Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Vijay Sakhare said that the police would further probe whether there was political conspiracy behind the murders.

The Special Branch had earlier given tip-off to the police that there would be possibility of counter attacks after the murder of RSS activist Nandu Krishna on February 24 at Nagam Kulangara area in Vayalar.

The hint given by the police Intelligence now is that SDPI State secretary KS Shan was killed in retaliation of the Vayalar killing. But the rival side was also ready with a proper plan to act in case any counter-attack was carried out. But nobody expected such a retaliation within hours after the killing of the SDPI leader.

All police stations have been ordered to inquire in detail the involvement of all suspects in these two crimes.

More police personnel from the Crime Branch and various local police station have been inducted into the probe team.

Surveillance at homes of Shan, Ranjeet

The family members of Shan said that they saw some strangers passing through the neighbourhood of his house some time before he was killed on the road.

His wife Fansila said that a stranger came to meet Shan a week ago. But Shan was not at home. The stranger said that he came from Thiruvananthapuram for an insurance-related enquiry. But the person who came through the front side of the house left the house through the back side. Sensing trouble, the wife called up Shan and told him about the matter. But Shan did not take it seriously.

Neighbours claimed they saw during night movement of strangers in vehicles through the road adjacent to Shan's house in the last many days. When the neighbours switched on the lights at their homes after hearing the sound of vehicles, the strangers immediately left the place.

Within two hours after the murder of Shan on Saturday evening, some people reportedly observed Ranjeet's house on the sly.

In the attack carried out by lethal weapons, including hammer, Ranjeet's skull was broken and his brain was damaged. His liver was also ruptured due to the stabbing on the chest.

Ranjeet's body cremated
Ranjeet was cremated on Monday evening after the body was kept at the Alappuzha Bar Association Hall and at his home in Vellakinar for viewing.

Earlier the postmortem was conducted at the Alappuzha Medical College Hospital.