The investigation into the murder of Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) reached a new stage with the unearthing of weapons used by assailants from Chokli near Thalassery on Tuesday.
The seizure of the weapons followed the arrest of four persons by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the murder of the RMP leader near Vadakara in Kozhikode on May 4. The police said that five specially designed long swords were found abandoned in an open well near a service station at Chokli here in the afternoon. The weapons were recovered from the well during a raid on the basis of information given by Lambu Pradeepan, one of the four people arrested by the SIT.
SIT officers including Additional Director General of Police Vinson M. Paul, Assistant Inspector General of Police Anup Kuruvila John and Thalassery Deputy Superintendent of Police A.P. Shoukathali were present when the weapons were recovered from the well at around 3-30 p.m.
Large posse of police personnel were present in the area when Pradeepan was brought to Chokli to identify the well and recover the weapons used for murdering the RMP leader. The police said that Forensic experts were examining the weapons seized by the police. The RMP leader had sustained 51 stab injuries in the attack.
Politically volatile Chokli and nearby areas were under the scanner of the investigators following the disclosure that some of the key suspects in the killer gang involved in murdering Chandrashekharan were from the area. Kodi Suni and Vazhapadachi Rafeekh have been identified by the investigators as key suspects in the case. The first clue about the identity of the killer group emerged after the finding of a Toyota Innova vehicle used by it. The vehicle had been found abandoned in a remote area near Chokli the day after the murder. The vehicle, owned by one K.P. Naveen Das of Thalassery, had been hired by the group. The police personnel had conducted extensive raids in on suspected hideouts of the suspects at Chokli, Paral and New Mahe areas since then. A country bomb had been recovered from a house of a CPI(M) worker during the raids a few days ago.
