A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worker was allegedly hacked to death in Kerala’s Kannur district on Wednesday.
According to police, the BJP worker has been identified as Ezhuthan Santhosh (52). He was hacked by a gang that broke into his house around 11.30 in the morning.
The incident took place near Dharmadom, which happens to be the constituency of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, police said.
Police said that Santhosh called his friend and informed him about the attack, following which he was rushed to a hospital but his life could not be saved.
His wife and children were not at home at the time of incident, police said.
Santhosh was the former Mukhya Shikshak of the RSS unit in Andallur and he was also the booth president of the BJP there.
The BJP has alleged that the ruling CPI(M) was behind this murder and called for strike in Kannur.
Senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu said that the ruling CPI(M) was practising ‘murderous politics’ in the state and warned them that they ‘will get it back politically’.
"We don't believe in violence but you will get it back politically. Murderous politics will not be tolerated. If you have guts, fight us politically. If you have guts, fight us ideologically. Killing helpless people, killing children, killing a woman in Palakkad...What a great shame on the Marxist party of India," he said.
"They are talking about tolerance...Intolerance. They are attacking my party people, my supporters. It is condemnable. The entire country is watching what CPI(M) is doing in Kerala," he added.
Meanwhile, police said that they have taken some persons into custody and questioning them. The police has termed it is a ‘political murder’.
Kannur has witnessed a series of attacks on political workers in the recent past. The volatile north Kerala district is notorious for RSS-Marxist clashes that have claimed more than 300 lives in three decades.
In October last year, an RSS worker was stabbed to death allegedly by a group of Marxists in Vijayan’s native village in Kannur district.
