RSS leader Sreenivasan murder case: NIA arrests absconding accused PFI member in Palakkad

The accused, Saheer KV, was absconding since the crime and carried a reward of Rs 4 lakh.

Palakkad: Another member of the banned Popular Front of India (PFI), wanted in connection with the April 2017 killing of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader Sreenivasan in Kerala's Palakkad district has been arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

The accused, Saheer KV, was absconding since the crime and carried a reward of Rs 4 lakh. An NIA Fugitive Tracking Team (FTT) located him at a relative's home in the Palakkad region and arrested him there.

Saheer, a Palakkad resident, was involved in the targeted killing as a member of the PFI Assault and Protection Team. Additionally, Saheer was in charge of protecting Sreenivasan's primary attackers.

A former Sharirik Shikshan Pramukh of the RSS, A Sreenivasan was murdered on April 16, 2022 by a bike-borne gang at his business establishment in Palakkad's Melamuri. They stormed the store in broad daylight, viciously attacked Sreenivasan, and then quickly fled the scene of the murder. He was attacked just 24 hours after PFI leader Subair was killed at Elappully in the district.

The PFI was named as an organisation in the investigation earlier on March 17 when the NIA filed a chargesheet against 59 accused. 

"Efforts are on to locate and trace the remaining 11 absconding accused, out of the total of 59 identified as implicated in the conspiracy thus far," the NIA said in reference to one of these accused, named as Abdul Naser, who passed away on January 2 of this year.

The assassins of Sreenivasan were chosen in a way that none of them had ever interacted with one another. The Kerala police detained 41 people in relation to the investigation, including the PFI's former state secretary.