CBI, Centre ready to probe killing of RSS workers: Kerala HC asks state govt to reply

The Centre and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday informed the Kerala High Court that it has no objection to the investigation into the killings of RSS workers in the state, ANI reported. They were responding to a PIL filed by a Gopalan Adiyodi Vakkeel Smaraka Trust’s secretary RK Premdas.

CBI and Centre inform Kerala HC that they have no objection in taking over investigation of murders of BJP workers in the state.

— ANI (@ANI) October 17, 2017

The high court sought a reply from the Kerala government on the PIL, also directing the state government to file a counter affidavit by 25 October, CNN-News18 reported. The report added that the case would come up for hearing on 30 October. The latest development comes at a time when the state is witnessing BJP-led protests against the killings of RSS workers. [caption id=“attachment_4151117” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Arun jaitley at the residence of Rajesh, an RSS worker killed on 29 July. PTI[/caption] The RSS had asked for an investigation into the killing of its workers in Kerala, especially Kannur, which has been a hotbed of RSS-CPM rivalry. On 4 August, just days after a RSS worker Rajesh was killed in Thiruvananthapuram, RSS leader Dattatreya Hosabale  had urged the CPM-led government to begin an investigation into the “political killings”. “We condemn the incident but condemning it will not bring back the dead. We want this political violence to end. There should be a judicial inquiry by either a judge of High court or the Supreme Court in the murders of RSS workers in the state,” Hosabale had told reporters in New Delhi. According to a Hindustan Times report, political killings between the RSS and CPM in Kerala’s Kannur, Thiruvananthapuram and other districts have been prevalent since the first half of the 20th century. According to the report, as many as 69 political murders took place between 2000 and 2016 in Kannur alone, with RSS losing as many workers as CPM. With inputs from agencies