Author: IANS
Publication: NewKerala.com
Date: January 30, 2008
URL: http://www.newkerala.com/one.php?action=fullnews&id=18337
A senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader
from Tamil Nadu was found hacked to death here, leading to tension in this
volatile area with party workers raising slogans against minorities at his
funeral Tuesday.
Rajapandi was killed Monday. BJP workers allege
that the 53-year-old was killed in a lonely stretch of a state highway near
Tenkasi, about 650 km from the state capital Chennai. A gang belonging to
an Islamic denomination was involved, they claim.
He died on the spot.
Police sources said the crime scene indicated
that the victim had either tried to save himself by fleeing or his body had
been dragged to a distance of approximately 25 feet, suggesting that several
persons were involved in the crime.
Murdered on his birthday, Rajapandi was a
state general council member of the BJP and headed its traders' wing.
The murder comes in the wake of the two blasts
on Jan 24 at a bus stand near the RSS office here. The police are yet to make
headway in investigations into the blasts. Experts have indicated that the
blasts could have been triggered by remote control because electricity to
the area had been cut off prior to the event.
Tenkasi witnessed a mini-bloodbath in August
last year when Hindu Front leader Kumarapandian and six others were killed.
Hindu Front leader Rama Gopalan said Saturday
that the region was slowly morphing into a "mini-Kashmir".
Meenakshipuram, a Hindu Dalit village that
converted to Islam en masse in 1980, is about 13 km from Tenkasi.
