Thiruvananthapuram, August 21: The Kerala police yesterday claimed a breakthrough in the professor T J Joseph hand-chopping incident with the arrest of one of the attackers following a month-and-a-half-long manhunt.
The special investigation team (SIT) arrested Shamsudheen, who was one of the seven-member team that waylaid the Malayalam professor on July 4. The gang had chopped off the professor’s hand in front of his aged mother and other family members for allegedly setting a blasphemous question paper for students.
This is the first time that a suspect who allegedly took part in the assault is being arrested. Shamsuddin, who hails from Perumbavoor, was arrested from Ikkadam near Coimbatore in the neighbouring Tamil Nadu, police said.
The authorities had earlier stepped up pressure on the Popular Front of India (PFI) by summoning and grilling its top leaders including professor P Koya, its national council member and editor of Thejas daily, Nasirudheen Elamaram, the state unit president, and P Abdul Hameed, state secretary.
Some 20 people associated with the group, including a human rights activist and a dentist, were arrested and remanded in custody since the investigation began.
Police also conducted a number of raids on PFI offices.
Police said Shamsudheen, 33, was an active worker of the PFI. He was out on bail and is facing charges in several cases of attacks carried out by the PFI including the killing of a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) activist in 2001.
According to police, Shamsudheen has revealed the entire plot including the conspiracy hatched at a Aluva house.
The group had attacked the professor with the intention of chopping his right hand. One of the gang members, Savad, severed Joseph’s hand using an axe. The professor also lost two fingers of his left hand and suffered severe knife wounds to his legs during the attack. Joseph’s hand and fingers were sewn back and he is recovering at his house in Muvattupuzha where Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan visited him on Thursday.
Shamsudheen, whom the police claimed was the gang leader, was produced in the judicial first class magistrate court, Muvattupuzha, in the evening and remanded to police custody for 10-day interrogation.
Director general of police (DGP), Jacob Punnooe, said all those who had hatched the conspiracy and those who carried out the crime have been identified.
“We have all details of the crime and have launched a hunt for the fugitives. All those who participated in the crime and those who are sheltering them will be brought to book,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Kerala High Court yesterday rejected a bail application by Dr Reneef, the dentist arrested for providing medical aid to the assailants, as the investigations are not completed.
The authorities of the Newman College in Thodupuzha meanwhile sent a show-cause notice to the professor, who was suspended over the question paper issue, though the Mahatma Gandhi University to which the college is affiliated had withdrawn his suspension.
At the time of the attack, Joseph was out on bail after being charged with disrupting communal harmony by setting the question paper that had provoked the Muslim community and led to widespread protests in the area.