The Special Investigation Team (SIT) investigating the murder of Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) leader T.P. Chandrasekharan nabbed three prime accused in the case, including N.K. Sunilkumar alias Kodi Suni, from a hideout near Iritty here in an undercover operation early on Thursday.
Kodi Suni along with Muhammad Shafi and Kirmani Manoj, two accomplices in the murder of Chandrasekharan, were nabbed from Peringanammala close to Muzhakkunnu, near Iritty, by the police team led by Thalassery Deputy Superintendent of Police A.P. Shoukathali at around 4 a.m.
Three others, identified as local workers of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), were also taken into custody from the spot.
Police sources said the investigators closed in on the three following information about their whereabouts gathered by the SIT during the questioning of M.C. Anoop, who was arrested recently.
Police sources said Kodi Suni and others had been hiding at Peringanammala, a hillock surrounded by strongholds of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), for the past two weeks. They were found inside a makeshift tent in a clearing surrounded by wooded areas.
The police team reached the area in a tipper lorry and from there to the wooded spot by foot. Sleeping inside the tent, the fugitives were caught unawares when the police overpowered and captured them.
A revolver and a dagger were reportedly recovered from them, though the police sources did not confirm it. The captured were immediately taken in a specially arranged police vehicle to the SIT camp at Vadakara. Their capture from a hideout in a CPI(M)-controlled area is seen as a major breakthrough in the investigation in the murder case.
The nabbing of Kodi Suni is also significant as he is the key accused in the Mohammed Fazal murder case at Thalassery being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The police said he had been involved in no less than 29 criminal cases, including murder cases.
