Two more assailants arrested over Ranjeet murder

Alappuzha (Kerala): Two more individuals suspected to be directly involved in the killing of  BJP OBC Morcha leader Rajeet Sreenivas in Alappuzha was arrested on Monday.

With this the number of arrested people directly invloved in the killing has risen to six.

Two others who were allegedly directely involved in the murder were arrested on Saturday by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by ADGP Vijay Sakhare

Of the 12 arrested so far, six were part of the gang that killed Sreenivas, while six were arrested for hatching the conspiracy to murder him.

The arrested persons are activists of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), the political offshoot of Islamist outfit Popular Front of India (PFI), police said.

Police have gone after other absconding accused in the case, Sakhara said, while adding, "we will catch all of them".

The back-to-back killings of two political activists -- BJP's Sreenivas and the other of SDPI's K S Shan -- in coastal Alappuzha district had rocked Kerala a fornight ago.

Shan, the state secretary of SDPI, was killed by a gang on the night of December 18, while he was returning home in Alappuzha, while Sreenivas was hacked to death in front of his family by some assailants in his house on December 19 morning in the same district.

Police have asserted that all the culprits involved in the heinous acts will be brought to book and added that they were also investigating the "larger conspiracy" behind the two killings.

(With PTI inputs.)