Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Crime Branch probing motive behind attack

Staff Reporter

Questions families in the neighbourhood of Bishop's House

EXPRESSING OUTRAGE: A march being taken out from the Neyyattinkara Bishop's House on Tuesday demanding the immediate arrest of those behind Monday's attack.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Crime Branch police are probing if there was any political motive behind the attack on the Latin Catholic Bishop's House at Neyyattinkara on Monday.

The attack took place when the campaign for the byelection had begun in the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha constituency.

The agency on Tuesday questioned the security guard, Bernard, who was injured in the attack. Bernard told the investigators that an unidentified person hit him on the head immediately after the lights went out. The Crime Branch has lifted one fingerprint from the scene of the crime.

Among those questioned on Tuesday were the members of 27 families in the neighbourhood. A Crime Branch official said some families in the area had certain disputes, including a few relating to the boundary wall, with the inmates of the Bishop's House.

Other inmates of the Bishop's House, including priests, were also questioned.

The members of the Neyyattinkara Integral Development Society, official organisation of the Latin Catholic diocese for social action, had been in the forefront of the fight against illicit spirit and drug abuse in the area. Some its members had earned the wrath of the local spirit and hooch mafia. The agency is also investigating whether the attack was the handiwork of criminal elements on the payroll of the liquor mafia.

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