Ten RSS men arrested for murder of 17-year old former RSS worker

The Kerala Police has taken into custody ten activists of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) on charges of murdering a 17-year old at Cherthala on Wednesday. The deceased has been identified as Ananthu, a higher secondary student at the Vayalar Rama Varma School.

Ananthu used to frequent RSS shakhas earlier, but has in recent times stayed away from it. Police is looking into whether his dissociation from the RSS has anything to do with his murder.

According to the police, there have been some level of tension between two groups at the Vayalar Rama Varma School. The Police had earlier in the day intervened to settle the issue. A meeting was also held at the Police station as part of this. However, the tension boiled over again in the evening, during the festival at the Neelimangalam Temple in Pattanakkad.

Ananthu, who had come to take part in the festival was chased by the group. He was repeatedly beaten and kicked around. No weapons were used in the attack, in which he sustained serious injuries to the head and the stomach. He was brought dead to the Taluk hospital in Cherthala. The ten accused are currently being questioned at the Cherthala Police Station.

This is the second incident of RSS/BJP workers being arrested for the murder of their own party men in the past two months in Kerala. In February, Nirmal, a 20-year old worker of the Yuva Morcha, was stabbed during a temple festival in Mannuthi. The BJP had observed a harthal in protest against the murder. However, it was later found that five BJP workers were involved in his murder.

The BJP has been trying to create an impression in the national media that its cadres are facing violence across Kerala. However, contrary to these reports, the RSS cadres have been found to be involved in many murderous attacks even on their own cadres in different parts of the state.

Link to Malayalam news report – http://www.reporterlive.com/2017/04/06/373457.html