SDPI members in Kerala brutally attack RSS workers returning home after a Dusshera procession

Case ID : e97a3f9 | Location : Kollam, Kerala, India | Date of Incident : Sat, 21 October, 2023

Case ID : e97a3f9

Kollam, Kerala, India

21 October, 2023

SDPI members in Kerala brutally attack RSS workers returning home after a Dusshera procession

Attack not resulting in death

Attacked for supporting/being part of perceived Hindu party/org or working for Hindu community

Attacked for Hindu identity

Case Summary

On Thursday, October 26, the Kerala police arrested three SDPI members for attacking RSS workers. The incident took place on Sunday, October 22, while the RSS members were returning home after attending a Dusshera rally in Karunagapalliin the Kollam district of Kerala. The accused were identified as 26-year-old Naufal, a resident of Karunagapally Thazhava; 24-year-old Yasim of Kulasekharapuram Siya Mansil and 23-year-old Ajmal, a resident of the Thazhava village in Kollam, Kerala. The victims were identified as Akshay Kumar, Madhun Lal, and Kiran, all residents of the Punnamkulam town in the Thrissur district of Kerala. The police said that all three accused who are members of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) which is the political wing of the banned Popular Front of India (PFI) have a criminal history. After the RSS procession on Sunday night, the RSS workers got off the bus at Puthiyakavu and were heading home when the accused Naufal, Yasim and Ajmal attacked them. Akshay Kumar suffered serious injuries in the incident and was admitted to Karunagappally Taluk Hospital. His arm was broken by the SDPI goons. Akshay and the other witnesses gave their statements to the police, based on which the police registered a case against the three accused SDPI members. Witness statements and circumstantial evidence were used to identify the accused, the police said, adding that Naufal and Ajmal are accused in several criminal cases. On 28 September 2022, the Central government banned the Islamist outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) and eight of its associates for five years under a stringent anti-terror law, accusing them of having links with global terror organisations, including ISIS. However, its political affiliate Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) was the only organisation of the radical Islamist outfit that was not banned by the Central government last year. Therefore, after being declared illegal in September of last year, the Popular Front of India (PFI) made SDPI a backyard of its erstwhile cadres to continue its operations in states like Karnataka and Kerala. It may be noted that before the central government had banned PFI, the Kerala High Court had observed that the Popular Front of India (PFI) and the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) were extremist organisations indulging in serious acts of violence. The Kerala High Court further noted that both SDPI and PFI have a history of attacking members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

In several cases, Hindus are attacked specifically or tangentially for their association with parties or organisations perceived to be pro-Hindu and/or for working in favour of the Hindu community. One of the classic cases was the attack against a Bharatiya Janata Party Yuva Morcha (BJYM) worker Praveen Nettaru. Nettaru was attacked and hacked to death for his association with Hindu organizations and his work for the Hindu community. He was murdered by PFI, a terror organization which aimed to commit a genocide of Hindus, target Hindu leaders specifically and turn India into an Islamic Nation. In such cases, it is possible that the immediate trigger for the violence is non-religious – either according to the perpetrator or the police. However, there are surrounding circumstances from which the conclusion can be reached that the victim was attacked for his association with a Hindu organization. In a similar case, Rinku Sharma was attacked by radicals. He was a member of Bajrang Dal and regularly worked for the Hindu community. While the police cited a different non-religious trigger for the attack, it is true that he was associated to a Hindu organization and the family of Rinku Sharma specifically attributed his gruesome murder to him working for Bajrang Dal and raising Jai Shree Ram slogans. Such cases are intrinsically driven by religious hate and would therefore be documented as a hate crime under this category. In this case, a member of the Hindu organisation RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) was attacked by members of SDPI. The RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) is a Hindu nationalist party, that promotes the cultural and spiritual heritage of Hinduism and advocates for the values and principles of Hindu society. The organisation is involved in activities promoting Hindu culture and values and the volunteers of this organisation work as defenders and promoters of Hindu identity and interests. An attack on these volunteers is symbolically seen as an attack on the broader Hindu community and is rooted in religious bias or hatred against Hindus and for this reason, this case has been included in the tracker.