SDPI, BJP leaders killed in Kerala's Alappuzha

Alappuzha, December 19

Kerala’s coastal Alappuzha district was rocked by back-to-back killings of two party leaders, the first belonging to the SDPI and the second to the BJP, leading to clamping of prohibitory orders by the police on Sunday.

Following the killing of an SDPI state secretary, a BJP leader was hacked to death subsequently in 12 hours and prohibitory order under Section 144 of the CrPC was imposed in Alappuzha district on Sunday.

Subsequently, the police took into custody around 50 persons, including anti-social elements, general public as well as workers of the BJP, RSS and the SDPI, IG Harshita Attaluri said.

The officer said not all of the persons in custody were culprits and that the police was “examining and investigating” the two cases.

She said there had been no lapse or intelligence on the part of the police which had swung into action right after the assault on the SDPI leader and added that “we cannot give protection to every house”. A big force of police personnel and senior officers has been deployed in the district and that is why they were able to find out a lot of details, she added. — PTI