New Delhi: A 15-year-old boy was stabbed to death on Wednesday, April 14, night outside a Padayanivettom temple in Kerala’s Alappuzha district by a group of four men during a temple festival. The deceased has been identified as Abhimanyu, a class 10 student, and a resident of Padayanivettom. Two others were injured during the attack, and are currently being treated at a local hospital.
The incident has created ripples in the state with CPI(M) and Left parties describing it as a “political murder” and calling it a handiwork of BJP-RSS. However, police are yet to ascertain the reason behind the murder and said the investigation is underway. No arrests have been made so far.
According to The News Minute, Abhimanyu’s elder brother, Ananth, is a member of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), the youth wing of CPI(M). The DYFI state president A. Rahim alleged that Abhimanyu was attacked because his brother could not be traced by the assailants. The CPI(M) has also declared a hartal or strike in Vallikunnu on Thursday.
Condemning the murder and demanding a fair probe into the incident, the Student Federation of India (SFI) said, “The murder was carried out on the day of the festival of Vishu. This has been a continuation of many prior examples in Kerala, where it can be seen that the RSS have selected festival days and holidays for carrying out their criminal operations. This is intentionally done to hide from the media and the public. This itself reveals the clear chances of criminal conspiracy behind the murder.”
However, district BJP leaders have denied any role by the party or the RSS in the murder.
The district police has maintained that it is still premature to conclusively say whether it was a political murder. “Right now, it is premature to say if this is a politically motivated murder or not but the probe is still underway and we are questioning more. We will be able to state anything conclusively only after the preliminary probe”, NDTV quoted a sub-inspector of the local police station as saying.
However, local reports cited by The News Minute claimed that Wednesday’s fight was a spillover from an earlier argument between the two parties.