Palakkad: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) will take over the probe into the murder of A Sreenivasan, former chief physical education trainer (sharirik shikshan pramukh) of the right-wing outfit Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), last year.

The NIA received a directive in this regard from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.

The Kochi unit of the agency will investigate the case. The procedures in this regard will begin in the next few days.

The NIA was ordered to take up the case after the Kerala Police discovered that the recently banned Islamic group Popular Front of India (PFI) had a secret wing which maintained a hit list of its adversaries.

The police also found that Sreenivasan's murder was the first of such planned crimes carried out by the PFI.

The NIA had collected details at each stage of the investigation being carried out by the Kerala Police in the murder case.

Police findings
The Kerala Police finding is that Moothanthara Arappath A Sreenivasan was killed in retaliation on April 16, 2022, the day after the murder of the Popular Front leader A Subair of Kuppiyode in Elapully.

The chargesheet submitted by the police stated that Srinivasan was eliminated to avenge Subair's murder within 24 hours.

The murder was planned in such a way as to keep most of the accused unknown to one another. The former PFI state secretary C A Rauf who was arrested by the NIA after the organisation was banned, had been detained in the Sreenivasan murder case too.  

The police have filed chargesheets in two stages against 44 persons, including former State committee member of the Popular Front, Yahiya Koya Thangal, and Socialist Democratic Party of India (SDPI) State committee member S P Ameer Ali.

In all 44 people have been arrested.