Man accused in prof hand-chopping case had key role in SFI leader's killing: Police

Police today informed the Kerala High Court that a man, who was one of the accused in chopping off the hand of a professor a few years ago, had a key role in the killing of an SFI leader at a government college here recently.

Police said Manaf, who was the 13th accused in the case of chopping off the hand of professor T J Joseph in 2010 on charges of blasphemy, had an important role in executing the killing of SFI leader and Ernakulam Maharaja's college student Abhimanyu.

A division bench, comprising Justice P R Ramachandra Menon and Devan Ramachandran, was considering three separate pleas filed by relatives of the alleged accused in the killing, alleging harassment by police probing the case.

Dismissing the pleas, the court said the petitioners' apprehensions were unfounded and directed police to go ahead with the probe into the killing.

The police informed the court that they did not harass or summon any woman to the police station in connection with the case.

The Students' Federation of India (SFI) leader was killed earlier this month in the college campus allegedly by activists of the Campus Front, Popular Front of India and Social Democratic Party of India.

Joseph's right hand was chopped off on July 4, 2010, while he was returning home after attending Sunday mass at a church in Muvattupuzha in Ernakulam district.