Thiruvananthapuram: Days after a Dalit man from Chhattisgarh was lynched allegedly by RSS functionaries in Kerala’s Palakkad, the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government has formed a 10-member SIT led by the Palakkad Superintendent of Police to probe into the incident. The state has also assured his family of all support and adequate compensation.
The announcements came Monday amid heightened tensions between the BJP-RSS and the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist), which has blamed the lynching incident on the former’s “politics of hatred”.
A group of locals at Palakkad’s Walayar lynched Ramnarayan Bhayar, a Dalit migrant labourer, on 17 December on the suspicion of theft. The local Walayar police later found no stolen items on his body. A video, which surfaced online, shows the mob beating the man on his face and head while asking questions about his village and calling him “Bangladeshi”.
Ramnarayan Bhayar arrived in Kerala in search of work four days before the incident and had no criminal record, according to his relatives. “He came to Kerala four days earlier, in search of a job, but was thinking of going back as he didn’t like it here. Since the place was new, he might have lost his way and reached where the incident happened,” his relative, Sasikanth Bhayar, told the media.
The victim is survived by two sons, aged eight and 10 years.
The incident took a political turn after the ruling CPI(M) Monday announced that four among the five persons arrested in the case are linked to the BJP–RSS.
CPI(M) leaders, including Kerala Minister for Local Self Governments M.B. Rajesh, have claimed that the RSS’s “politics of hate” led to Ramnarayan Bhayar’s death.
“The labelling of him as a ‘Bangladeshi’ stems from ethnic hatred. Ramnarayan is a victim of this hatred being spread by the RSS. But unfortunately, even the media is calling it just a mob lynching, without revealing who the perpetrators are,” Rajesh said Monday.
When ThePrint contacted RSS leader K.B. Sreekumar, who is in charge of the organisation’s activities in central Kerala, he said he would respond after he gained a thorough understanding of the case.
The police have identified those arrested as Murali, Prasad, Anu, Bipin, and Anandan—all of whom allegedly have criminal records.
Politics over death
On Sunday, the Congress, the main opposition party in Kerala, accused the CPI(M)-led government of apathy.
All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary and Alappuzha Member of Parliament K.C. Venugopal blamed the lynching on the “lackadaisical attitude” of the state government and its “complete failure in managing the law and order situation”.
An officer at the Walayar police station told ThePrint that the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, sections invoked in the FIR mentioned murder by a group of more than five persons, not mob lynching.
The police, though, have requested the inclusion of sections for mob lynching, as well as provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, in the FIR in court.
According to the officer, Ramnarayan Bhayar died at the hospital while undergoing treatment for injuries sustained in last Wednesday’s mob attack. “We have not looked at the angle of politics,” the officer further said, adding that more arrests are likely as the investigation progresses.
Babu, the local ward member of Pampampallam, where the incident occurred, told ThePrint that four of the arrested are active RSS members in the region. A theft incident was reported in the village a week earlier, making locals suspicious of Bhayar, he said. “He was speaking in another language, and people got emotional.”
Earlier in the day, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the government would ensure justice for Bhayar. “Justice will be ensured for the family of Ramnarayan Bhayar, who was killed following mob violence at Walayar in Palakkad. Strict action will be taken against the accused,” the CM said.
He added that the government would review the matter and ensure proper compensation, stating that such incidents that tarnish the reputation of a progressive society, like in Kerala, are completely unacceptable.
Revenue Minister K. Rajan, who met the victim’s relatives and action council members Monday, said afterwards that the probe would be conducted based on the 2023 Supreme Court guidelines in the 2018 Tehseen Poonawala case.
The Kerala cabinet “will consider compensation from the CMDRF (Chief Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund), and a final decision will be taken by the cabinet”, Rajan said. “The family has sought compensation no lower than Rs 10 lakh. I have assured them that the issue will be presented before the Cabinet with utmost seriousness.”
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
Also Read: When a Dalit man refused quota: ‘You are blocking an open category seat of an upper caste’