Daily News Dose: Four SDPI activists nabbed in Sreenivasan murder case in Palakkad | Apr 21, 2022

Hello, this is your daily dose of news from Onmanorama. I'm your host, Vishnu, and these are the major news stories of the day:

1. Sreenivasan murder: Four SDPI activists nabbed. Killers had a Plan B too

2. K-Rail survey called off temporarily after police and protesters clash at Kazhakoottam

3. Mathai custodial death case: Wife flays loopholes in CBI chargesheet, wants probe by new team

4. Active Covid-19 cases in India rise to 13,433; Covid-R value crosses 1 for first time in three months

5. Shrugging off Covid, a wave of job creators boosts India's growth story

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Let's get into the details:

1. Four SDPI members involved in the killing of former RSS activist Sreenivasan in Palakkad were taken into custody by the police on Thursday. The men apprehended are Bilal, Rizwan, Sahad, and Riyaz Khan, all Palakkad locals. ADGP Vijay Sakhare, in charge of the Palakkad twin murders, told reporters that their arrests would be recorded soon.

There were 16 accused in Sreenivasan's murder. However, these four were not part of the six men who reached Sreenivasan's shop in two-wheelers to commit the crime. The killers are still absconding. Nonetheless, the ADGP said that the police had identified all the accused, including the killers. The conspiracy to kill Sreenivasan was hatched on the night Popular Front of India leader Subair was hacked to death. The decisive meeting was held in the ground behind the mortuary of the District Hospital, where Subair's body was kept. Once the decision to retaliate was firmed up, the target was chosen early next day, after consultation with PFI leaders. 

The target was chosen in such a way that the retaliation could be swift and effective. For this, they had to strike at an unexpected target, a person the enemy deems low risk and therefore would be left unguarded. 

Sreenivasan seemed just right since he had ceased to be active in RSS for some time and was busy with his shop. Six activists were then chosen to carry out the hit. A 'B-team' of four was also kept ready. They were to act as cover for the six, and they too had reached the spot. 

The 'gang of four' was supposed to step in if Plan A was somehow compromised, as in, if there was a counter attack or the job was left incomplete. According to police sources, some of the accused had even returned to the District Hospital after the deed. CCTV visuals at both the crime site and the hospital seem to have come in handy for the police. The four accused who had been nabbed now were part of the 'B-Team'.

Meanwhile, the district collector decided to extend the prohibitory order in Palakkad till April 24, considering the prevailing tense situation in the area over the political murders. 

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2. After a lull of nearly two weeks, the planting of K-Rail survey poles for the CPM government's ambitious SilverLine rail project resumed on Thursday amid vehement protests by locals, anti-SilverLine agitators and Congress workers. 

SilverLine is a 529.45km semi high speed rail corridor that will connect Thiruvananthapuram in the south to Kasaragod in the north. The over Rs60,000 crore project will pass through 11 stations, linking 11 districts. However, the project has been met with widespread protests from parties, environmental activists and sections of the public, especially with regard to land acquisition for the purpose. 

Karichara near Kazhakutttam in Thiruvananthapuram was the flashpoint on Thursday. Following massive protests, Revenue officials had to temporarily call off the survey work. The protesters were already present at the spot when the Revenue officials, accompanied by a huge police force, arrived to plant the survey poles. When the protesters did not allow the revenue officials to go ahead with their work, the police intervened. This led to a scuffle between the police personnel and the slogan shouting protesters, with the former using force to push the latter away. Videos show a policeman even kicking a protester who already has his shirt sleeve torn. Locals told reporters that they were not served any prior notice. One of the protesters had fallen unconscious during the melee. The protesters said four Congress workers were injured in total. 

Though DGP Anil Kant had earlier asked the force to show restraint while dealing with K-Rail protesters, the policemen seemed aggressive. Women were also seen caught in the scuffle but none were reportedly harmed. The police, however, said that it had not intentionally hurt any protester. 

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3. Finding fault with the CBI chargesheet in the P P Mathai death case of 2020, his wife Sheeba has written a letter to the director of the central investigation agency seeking constitution of a new investigation team. Mathai was found dead in a well while in the custody of the forest department on July 28, 2020 in Pathanamthitta. 

The department had detained him for allegedly damaging its cameras. 

In her letter, Sheeba stated that the chargesheet, riddled with loopholes, would help the accused go free rather than ensuring justice for the victim. The letter charged that despite having all circumstantial evidence to charge the accused for murder, the chargesheet termed the case as culpable homicide not amounting to murder. The investigators left loopholes that would help the accused escape. Sheeba further stated that Mathai's body was kept in the morgue for 41 days in the hope of getting justice from the CBI. The funeral was held in the belief that the departed soul would get justice from the central agency. 

Sheeba demanded the CBI director to constitute a new investigation team before the accused persons move a bail application. 

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4. With 2,380 new coronavirus infections being reported in a day, India's total tally of COVID-19 cases rose to 4,30,49,974, while the active cases increased to 13,433, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday. The death toll climbed to 5,22,062 with 56 fresh fatalities. 

An increase of 1,093 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours. The daily positivity rate was recorded as 0.53 per cent and the weekly positivity rate as 0.43 per cent, according to the ministry. The 56 new fatalities include 53 from Kerala and one each from Delhi, Mizoram and Odisha. The ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities. 

Meanwhile, India's effective reproduction number (R) for Covid, an indicator of how quickly the infection is spreading, has increased to over one for the first time since January, estimates a researcher from Chennai's Institute of Mathematical Sciences. The country's R-value, steadily increasing over the last few weeks, is 1.07 for the week between April 12-18, according to Sitabhra Sinha. "This increase in R-value is not just because of Delhi but also Haryana and Uttar Pradesh," the mathematician, who has been tracking the R number for India since the beginning of the pandemic, told PTI in an email interview. 

An R-value of over 1 indicates that the number of active cases has increased. R should be contained below 1 to control the pandemic. An R number lower than 1 indicates that the disease will stop spreading as there aren't enough people being infected to sustain the outbreak. According to Sinha, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh have an R-value above 2. Among the major states, Kerala and Maharashtra have an R-value less than 1, with values of 0.72 and 0.88 respectively.

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5. Despite being hit by various waves of the Covid pandemic, India's growth story refuses to take a step back. Showing resilience, India  registered 1.67 lakh companies in the financial year 2021-22, according to a report by Ministry of Corporate Affairs. The increase is significant considering that number of companies incorporated during Financial Year 2020-21 was the highest in any of the previous years. The MCA had registered 1.55 lakh companies in 2020-2021. The incorporations during FY 2021-22 are 8 per cent more than the incorporations during FY 2020-21. The States having the highest number of registrations were Maharashtra with over 31,000 companies, followed by Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Sector wise, the maximum number of companies were incorporated in the Business Services with over 44,000 companies, followed by manufacturing, community, personal & social services and agriculture & allied activities. This also indicates that due to less availability of suitable jobs more and more people are opening their own businesses and are in turn becoming job creators.

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That brings us to the end of this episode. Be sure to come back tomorrow. As always, thanks for listening to Daily News Dose.