Four people were arrested on Wednesday for allegedly murdering a 32-year-old man in Mangaluru.

"The suspects were arrested when they were trying to escape after attacking the victim – Deepak Rao – at Katipalla in the town," Dakishna Kannada Superintendent of Police SK Reddy told IANS. "We recovered the weapon (machete) with which Rao was hacked," Reddy added.

A 32-year old man, said to be a "Hindu activist", was hacked to death by a four-member gang who intercepted him while he was riding a bike at nearby Katipalla on Wednesday, police said.

The deceased has been identified as Deepak, an executive in a mobile SIM cards distribution company.

Police said the political affiliation of the victim was not immediately known.

The state BJP said Deepak was an activist committed to "Hindutva ideology" and was associated with the Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad in Dakshina Kannada district.

The assailants who came in a car stopped him while he was on his way to duty and attacked him with sharp weapons, police said.

Strongly condemning the "cold-blooded murder",BJP leaders R Ashok and Ashwathnarayana demanded an NIA probe into it.

They charged that the Congress government in the state had allowed "jehadi forces" to have a field day and to indulge in "wanton killings" of Hindu workers in pursuance of its 'vote-bank politics' and minority appeasement.

With this heinous killing, the number of Hindutva workers who have fallen to the 'murderous agenda of jehadi forces' has risen to 22, they said.

A series of killings of "Hindu activists" has often caused tension in the communally sensitive Dakshina district in the coastal region.

BJP has been accusing the Congress of adopting "a soft approach" towards "jehadi forces", a charge dismissed by the Siddaramaiah government, which has accused the saffron party of trying to polarise the situation.

(With agencies input)