KPCC chief claims arrested Youth Congress activists have no role in SFI worker’s murder

PTI, Jan 15, 2022, 3:23 PM IST

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) chief K Sudhakaran on Saturday continued to criticise the ruling CPI(M) over the recent killing of Dheeraj Rajendran, an activist of its student wing SFI, and claimed that the arrested Youth Congress activists have no connection with the incident.

Alleging that the 21-year-old youth was a victim of the Marxist party’s ”violent politics”, the Kannur MP said even witnesses did not say that the arrested YC activists had stabbed him.

Playing a purported voice clip of some students, who are said to have witnessed the incident that happened at the Government Engineering College in Idukki last week, he told reporters here that none of them said who had stabbed the deceased man. How could the responsibility of the crime be attributed to the YC activists, he asked during a meet-the-press programmme here.

Sudhakaran claimed that the Kerala Students Union (KSU) and YC activists did not go after anyone to attack them and asked why the police were reluctant to rush the injured Rajendran to hospital. Urging police to find out the ”real” culprits, he also rejected the criticism that he did not mourn the youth’s death.

”The loss of a human life is a sad incident. My mind is not made of stone and iron… I am a person who can understand the pain of his family members. But it was the CPI(M) that tried to celebrate his death by buying land to build a memorial in his name soon after the incident,” Sudhakarn charged.

Rajendran’s family came from the Congress background, he claimed and said he really wanted to visit and console them.

Taking a dig at the ruling party, the Kannur strongman also said the CPI(M) also did not mind organising a mega ‘thiruvathirakkali’, a traditional group dance, while mourning the student activist’s death.

The veteran Congress leader was referring to the recent controversial group dance organised in connection with the Marxist party’s district conference soon after the death of Rajendran.

Coming down heavily on the SFI, he said it was an outfit that has managed to prevail in the state campuses only because of its violent politics and they were unleashing violence against the KSU activists.

Nikhil Paily, a district-level YC leader and Jerin Jijo were arrested on Tuesday for allegedly stabbing Rajendran to death. Rajendran was a student of the college. Two students, Abjijith and Amal, were also seriously injured in the attack.

In the FIR, the police have mentioned that the murder took place due to political rivalry. The ruling CPI(M) had alleged that the murder was pre-planned and claimed 21 Left workers were killed in the state in the last six years.