Kozhikode: The Special Investigation Team probing the murder of RSS leader Kathirur Manoj interrogated CPM Kathirur local committee secretary Puthalath Suresh Babu at the camp office of the SIT at Thalassery on Wednesday.
The interrogation started around 10 a.m. and continued for an hour, according to sources. It may be recalled that Manoj was hacked to death by unidentified culprits at Ukhasmotta, Kathiroor, near Thalassery on September 1 while he was travelling with a friend in a Maruti Omni van.
Suresh Babu reportedly denied any role in the murder and said that at the time of the crime he was not in Kathirur but in the cooperative bank where he is employed. He also shouted at the waiting reporters outside the camp office.
Though the SIT had issued notices to CPM branch secretaries of Chundagappoyil, Diamondmukku and Ukhasmotta asking them to appear before the team, they failed to turn up.
In the coming days, the SIT would issue notices to the CPM branch secretaries of Patyam and Ponnyam, it is learnt. The interrogation is based on the hints received from the cyber cell of the mobile numbers that crisscrossed the spot on the day of the murder, sources said.
Many party members owning the mobile numbers are missing from the region, police said. SIT is verifying the mobile calls made when Manoj stepped out of the house at Kathirur and just before the murder.
More persons would be interrogated as the shortlisting and crosschecking of mobile numbers are still on, it is learnt.
Meanwhile, Pramod, the RSS worker who accompanied Manoj, revealed to reporters that it was Vikraman, a native of Kathirur, the former driver of CPM district secretary P. Jayarajan, who headed the gang. Injured in the attack, Pramod was admitted to Medical College Hospital, Kozhikode.
They hacked him with an axe and around 20 party men were roaming in the area in several gangs, he said and added that he could identify most of the seven-member team that participated in the crime.
“He was hacked down even before they threw the bomb at the spot,” he said. “I have revealed everything to the investigation team,” Pramod who returned to his house at Kathirur told reporters.
