In ordinary crimes, individuals act alone and face the law alone. But when violence is driven by religious motivation, supremacist narratives, or the intention to signal terror, it rarely stays an individual act. An active ecosystem grows behind it, protecting the accused, enabling escape routes, and extending support networks to keep fugitives beyond the reach of the law. The Prof. T.J. Joseph hand-chopping case appears to point to such an ecosystem operating silently in Kerala for years. It is this ecosystem that the NIA is now investigating.
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has initiated a fresh inquiry into the people who facilitated and protected Savad, the main accused in the 2010 hand-chopping attack on Prof. T.J. Joseph, and helped him remain underground for 14 years.
Prof. Joseph’s hand was chopped on 4 July 2010, following a question paper he drafted for students at Newman College. Yet, despite being the first accused, Savad was arrested only in 2024.
During interrogation, Savad claimed that workers of the outlawed Popular Front of India (PFI) arranged hideouts for him. He reportedly moved through Dindigul, Chennai and Kannur, living undetected for over a decade.
The NIA is now examining whether those who sheltered him were merely helpers or active participants in the conspiracy surrounding the attack.
Earlier, the NIA Court had convicted 19 men for their direct roles in the assault and the conspiracy. It was PFI terrorist Savad who chopped the professor’s hand.
Many in Kerala believe that the renewed probe could reveal wider layers of the PFI ecosystem that enabled fugitives like Savad. Despite the ban imposed on 28 September 2022, the organisation’s political wing, the SDPI, continues to stay active.
In recent incidents, SDPI workers disrupted a government programme in Kasaragod on 21 November, and in another case pressured a Municipal Secretary in Thiruvananthapuram to lock a centuries-old temple on 22 November.
For observers, these incidents reaffirm that the fanatical and extremist network associated with PFI continues to manifest in Kerala often resurfacing whenever opportunities arise.
