5 arrested; police suspects larger conspiracy

Alappuzha (Ker): Five persons have been arrested in connection with the recent murder of BJP functionary Ranjith Sreenivas here, but they were not part of the attack team and were those who provided logistics support to the assailants, police said here on Wednesday, while suspecting a "larger conspiracy" behind his killing and local SDPI leader K S Shan. The arrested were prima facie the sympathisers of SDPI, a senior police officer said.

"There is a larger conspiracy behind the killings of Sreenivas and Shan," said ADGP (Law and Order) Vijay Sakhare, the head of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the two back to back murder cases, which had rocked the state

recently. He also said interrogation of the suspected was in progress to identify those who directly participated in the crime.

"The arrested persons were not part of the attack team. But they provided all logistics support to the attackers and participated in the conspiracy. There is good progress in the investigation," he said.

The senior IPS officer, however, denied the SDPI leadership's charge that police personnel investigating the case had forced their activists to chant 'Jai Sri Ram'.