The Special Investigation Team on Monday arrested a Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] worker who was allegedly part of the seven-member killer-gang that hacked to death the Revolutionary Marxist Party leader T.P. Chandrasekharan at Onchiyam on May 4.
M.C. Anoop of Chendayad was arrested from an apartment rented by a college student at Krishnarajapuram in Bangalore. He had fled, along with the prime accused T.K. Rajeesh, after committing the murder at Vallikkad. The accused, 29 to be arrested in the case, will be produced before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court, Vadakara, on Tuesday.
The police said that Anoop had been at the wheel of the Toyota Innova vehicle that carried the assailants. But it was Rajeesh who later steered the vehicle into Chandrasekharan's motorbike.
Investigators said Anoop and Rajeesh escaped to Koothuparamba first and then left for Mysore and Mumbai. They parted at Alkuj in Solapur in Maharashtra. While Rajeesh went to Sawantwadi in Sangli, Anoop left for Bangalore. He then sought shelter in the house of a bakery worker from Kannur. The latter refused shelter but put him in the apartment of the student, also hailing from Kannur.
The police said that Anoop had been earlier charged for killing a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) activist, Rajesh, at Kunnothupramba in 2009. Anoop was once an RSS sympathiser but shifted loyalties to the CPI(M).
Lookout notice
He was the third person allegedly directly involved in the murder at Onchiyam to be arrested. Superintendent of Police, Kozhikode Rural, T.K. Rajmohan had earlier issued a lookout circular for him at international airports. The accused has been charged under sections 302 (murder), 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting) and 148 (rioting , armed with deadly weapons) of the Indian Penal Code.
Identification parad e
Judicial First Class Magistrate, Kozhikode, P.T. Prakashan carried out an identification parade of Rajeesh at the district jail on Monday. Eleven witnesses, including five accused, from Vallikkad were summoned for the purpose.
The parade was conducted with the accused in judicial custody to avoid any criticism against the investigation team. The investigation team has planned to move a petition on Tuesday seeking Rajeesh in police custody for further interrogations. Soon after his arrest, he was produced before the court to facilitate the identification parade, sources said.
