Palakkad: Police have found the second car used by gangsters behind Friday's murder of Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) functionary Subair.
The car was found abandoned at Kanjikode in Palakkad district. Efforts are on to locate the owner of the vehicle.
It is suspected that the five suspects in the case have entered Tamil Nadu. Kanjikode is a mere 15 km from the inter-state border.
In wake of the murder, the Kerala police is on high alert to prevent any more untoward incidents in the state.
The Police IG Ashok Yadav had called a review meeting after meeting Palakkad SP and district police chief R Viswanadh. DGP Anil Kant too is monitoring the case.
A team including Crime Branch Deputy Superintendent of Police and five Circle Inspectors are investigating the murder with communal and political overtones.
In the FIR filed, the police has concluded that the murder is indeed a political assassination, a retaliation against the slaying of an RSS activist by SDPI workers in 2021.
The murder
SDPI activist Subair was hacked to death by assailants in broad daylight at Elappully in Palakkad on Friday.
The 43-year-old was returning home with his father after visiting the mosque when the assailants fell on them.
The gang had come in two cars, one of which is believed to belong to Sanjith, a victim of a political murder from a rival camp.
The first car rammed into the bike Subair and his father was travelling on, knocking them onto the road.
Occupants of the second car arrived where the duo had fallen and hacked Subair to death with machetes.
The first car drove on after making sure that Subair was indeed dead. It is this car that has now been found at Kanjikode.
The second car was abandoned at the crime spot after it developed a puncture, the police said.
According to information received by the police, five people are directly involved in the murder.
Subair's post-mortem procedures will begin at 10 am on Saturday. The burial will be in Elappully in the evening.
Sanjith's mother on her son's car
Sanjith's mother Sunitha has confirmed he had left the car in a workshop one-and-a-half months before his murder.
He had told her a lot of money was required for the repair.
"I don't know where he had given the car and where it was after he was killed," Sunitha told Manorama News.
I came to know from news reports (Subair's) killers had arrived in Sanjith's car.
Political murder
Subair was a district committee member of SDPI.
The local SDPI unit has raised allegations that the murder was plotted by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
They alleged that this was retaliation for the murder of 27-year-old RSS worker Sanjith last year.
There were widespread demonstrations by SDPI workers in Palakkad after news of the murder emerged.
Subair's father Kuppiyod Aboobacker too had said that the RSS workers were hostile towards his son.
The Police has filed an FIR based on his statement. In it, they too conclude that this was a political assassination.
Aboobacker, who too was hurt after falling off the bike, is undergoing treatment at the hospital.
A similar attack
RSS activist Sanjith too had met a similar fate. He was also knocked off his bike and slashed with machetes on November 15, 2021.
Sanjith was also a resident of Elappully. The police had arrested several SDPI workers then, including Mohammad Haroon, the suspected key conspirator behind the attack.
