The Central Bureau of Investigation has named the Kannur District Secretary of Communist Party of India (Marxist), P Jayarajan, as the mastermind in the 2014 murder of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader Kathiroor Manoj. The agency filed a supplementary chargesheet on Thursday.

The agency has charged Jayarajan under Section 18 (punishment for conspiracy) of the Unlawful Activities Act, and has also named Former Payyanur CPI(M) Secretary TA Madhusoodanan, Manorama reported.

Jayarajan was arrested for the murder in February 2016, and later released on bail in March. Manoj was one of those accused for attempting to murder P Jayarajan in 1999. A group of Sangh workers had barged into his house and almost severed his right hand, which was later sutured back.

In 2007, the district sessions court had sentenced Manoj and five others to 10-year rigorous imprisonment. The accused had appealed to the Kerala High Court, which stayed the sentence.
Manoj was also an accused in the murder of a CPI(M) branch secretary.

A spate of violent attacks have been reported recently between the BJP-RSS alliance and the ruling CPI(M). There have been several political murders in Kerala since the Left Democratic Front government came to power in May 2016, with the victims on both sides. The RSS and the CPI(M) have blamed each other for the bloodshed.