Kasaragod: The week-old twin murders near Periya in Kerala's Kasaragod district have pushed the ruling CPI(M) into a corner, with local leaders facing the ire of the people when they arrived at Kalliyode area today (Saturday) to take stock of the vandalisation by angry mobs a day after the shocking crime on February 17. An enraged crowd, which included some angry women, stonewalled the CPI(M) leaders, including legislators and a parliamentarian who arrived there on Saturday.
Several Congress workers were taken into custody after they tried to block the road to thwart the visit of P Karunakaran, MP, K Kunjiraman, MLA, and former MLA K V Kunjiraman who wanted to visit the houses targeted during a hartal organised by the Congress on Monday.
Some of the protesters tried to manhandle the MP and showered abuses on the leaders.
A teenage girl was seen squaring off to a police officer who wanted the crowd to disperse. “Do you want to kill more of our children?” Another woman was heard asking the visiting leaders.
A CPM office and a few houses at Kalliyod, a Congress bastion, were damaged in the violence that followed the murder of Kripesh and Sharath Lal. Karunakaran claimed that some houses were robbed in the melee. Property worth lakhs of rupees was damaged, he said referring to the aftermath of Monday's backlash over the murders.
The murders have shaken the CPI(M) in many areas in the district even as a Lok Sabha election looms. Though chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan wanted to visit the houses of the murder victims on Friday, he had to back off after the Congress leaders said they could not predict how the workers would react to his presence.
