Later, the agency also detained four SDPI activists from Manjeri, identified as Irshad Aanakkottupuram, Saithalavi Kizhakkethala, Khalid Mangalasery, and Shihabudheen Chengara. According to sources, the detainees were office-bearers of SDPI in Manjeri and were allegedly involved in aiding absconding suspects in the case.

The persons taken into custody were shifted to the NIA office in Kochi for detailed interrogation. Shamnad was produced before the NIA court on Friday and remanded in judicial custody. The agency is expected to file a petition seeking his custody for further interrogation.

SDPI leaders denied any knowledge of the reason behind the detentions. They said the agency intended to detain five individuals but managed to take only four and claimed that those taken into custody were not SDPI leaders but workers.

RSS leader K S Sreenivasan was murdered on April 16, 2022, at Melamuri Junction, Palakkad. The NIA took over the investigation amid allegations that the murder was part of a larger conspiracy involving communal violence and radicalisation linked to the banned PFI. The NIA has filed two chargesheets against 59 accused persons in the case. In a recent development, the Kerala High Court granted bail to 10 of the accused.