Kerala court convicts 8 BJP-RSS workers for killing CPI(M) activist in 2013
Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 10: A Kerala court on Friday found eight BJP-RSS workers guilty in a case of beating and stabbing to death a CPI(M) activist near Alamcode here in May 2013.
Thiruvananthapuram Additional District and Sessions Judge IV Aaj Sudarsan found Shambhu Kumar alias Shambhu, Sreejith alias Unni, Harikumar, Chandramohan alias Ambili and Santhosh alias Chandu, guilty for the offence of murder under the IPC.
The court found three others -- Abhishek alias Anni Santhosh, Prashanth alias Pazhinji Prashanth and Sajeev -- guilty of being part of the criminal conspiracy to commit the offence of murder, special public prosecutor (SPP) A A Hakkim said.
It will pronounce their sentences on January 15, the SPP said.
According to the prosecution, the reason behind the killing of the victim -- Sreekumar alias Ashokan -- was a financial dispute between his friend Aad Binu and one of the accused, Shambhu.
Sreekumar had intervened in the financial row and caused injuries to Shambhu, the SPP said.
Subsequently, the eight accused hatched a plan to retaliate and beat up and stabbed to death the victim near Alamcode on May 5, 2013, the prosecutor said.
The SPP also said that eight other accused in the case -- who were charged with destruction of evidence and helping the attackers to abscond -- were acquitted due to lack of evidence against them.
The prosecution examined 45 witnesses and placed 110 documents before the court in support of its contentions, the SPP said.
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Sharad Pawar praised RSS after seeing how it burst fake narrative balloon of LS polls: Fadnavis
Nagpur, Jan 10: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar praised the RSS after realising how the outfit managed to overcome the fake narrative spread by the opposition in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The opposition had claimed BJP wanted to win 400 seats to change the Constitution and end reservations, a narrative which BJP leaders later claimed hit the party hard.
On Pawar praising the RSS recently, the CM said the MVA was successful in creating a fake narrative during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
"When assembly polls were approaching, many people from diverse fields who are inspired by the RSS played their role and burst the balloon of this fake narrative. Sharad Pawar saheb is very intelligent. He would have certainly studied this aspect. He realised that this (RSS) is not a regular political power but a nationalist power. In any competition it is good to praise others," he added.
That is why Pawar may have praised the RSS, Fadnavis said.
Speaking at an interaction with senior editor Vivek Ghalsasi at Late Vilasji Fadnis Jivhala programme here, Fadnavis also said he had asked for organisational work when Eknath Shinde was made chief minister in June 2022, but senior leaders asked him to join the government.
He also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked him not to behave like an extra-constitutional authority in the government.
He said the decision to become deputy chief minister on the command of the party leadership earned him a lot of praise from the cadre.
After the massive mandate the ruling alliance received in the 2024 assembly polls, Fadnavis said people and party workers would not have been happy if the CM was not from the BJP.
Shinde himself agreed within minutes that the CM must be from the BJP, which itself got 132 seats and was close to a majority of its own in the 288-member assembly, he added.
On Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray meeting him during the winter sessions of the legislature in Nagpur, Fadnavis said he had announced he would not indulge in politics of revenge after becoming CM and all leaders responded positively to it.
On chances of the NCP (SP) and NCP coming closer or reuniting, Fadnavis said, "If you see the developments that took place from 2019 to 2024, I realised never say never and anything can happen. Uddhav Thackeray goes to some other party and Ajit Pawar comes to us. In politics anything can happen though I am not saying this should happen."
He praised BJP leader Arun Gujarati from whom he learnt patience, which he claimed was an important quality in politics along with the ability to take criticism.
In a lighter vein, he said, "I only get angry when I am hungry. If you see me angry then give me something to eat and my anger will go away."
