Police also seized sharp-edged weapons from a disused well at a village near Chokly town in Kannur district which was suspected to have been used by the assailants who murdered Chandrasekharan on May 4 at Vallikkadu near Vatakara town in the district.
Police identified those arrested as Raveendran, a CPI(M) LC member from Orakattery near Vatakara, Deepu, 'Lambu' Pradeep and Rejith while the name of the fifth person was yet to disclosed by police.
The CPI-M state leadership strongly refuted that the party had any role in the murder and accused the Congress-led UDF, "enemies" of the party and a section of the media of spreading canard against the party.
The charge against Ravindran is that he had helped the assailants in identifying Chandrasekharan before he was hacked to death and others were accused of aiding the gang to hide the weapons used by them, police said.
Earlier a look-out notice was issued against 12 persons as part of the investigation into the murder. MORE
