NIA taking over probe of RSS leader Sreenivasan's murder in Kerala's Palakkad

New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday began the process of taking over the probe into the murder of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) activist A Sreenivasan in Kerala's Palakkad, sources said.

The Central counter-terror probe agency will file a First Information Report (FIR) after taking over the case from Kerala Police following orders received a day ago from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. NIA was handed over the probe of the case in the wake of the allegation that those involved in the killing had terror connections. Kerala Police is handing over the case to the NIA's Kochi team.

The NIA was ordered to take up the case after the Kerala Police discovered that the recently banned Islamic group Popular Front of India (PFI) had a secret wing that maintained a hit list of its adversaries.

The state police also found that Sreenivasan's murder was the first of such planned crimes carried out by the PFI.
Sreenivasan, former chief physical education trainer (Sharirik Shikshan Pramukh) of the RSS, was attacked and killed by a six-member gang at his motorbike shop in Melamuri in Kerala on April 16.

The Kerala Police had arrested over two dozen people for alleged involvement in the murder and conspiracy in the case. Police had hinted at the involvement of more people in hatching a conspiracy behind the murder.

The state police have informed that Srinivasan was murdered in retaliation to the murder of PFI leader Subair on April 15.
The murder was planned in such a way as to keep most of the accused unknown to one another. The former PFI state secretary CA Rauf who was arrested by the NIA after the organisation was banned, had been detained in the Sreenivasan murder case too.

The police have filed chargesheets in two stages against 44 persons, including former State committee members of the Popular Front, Yahiya Koya Thangal, and Socialist Democratic Party of India (SDPI) State committee member SP Ameer Ali.