Police have arrested five persons alleging that they had tried to create problems outside DGP’s office in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday when Jishnu Pranoy’s family reached there to protest.
On Thursday, the Chief judicial magistrate Thiruvananthapuran denied bail to all five accused. Prosecution argued in the district court that they intentionally created chaos and attacked police officers. Even Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in his clarification had said that it was not police, who created the ruckus, but few ‘outsiders’ did.
AN Shahjahan, former private secretary of VS Achuthanandan (when he was Chief Minister), Himaval Bhadrananda, Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) leaders Shajirkhan, Mini and Sreekumar were arrested by police. Many have criticised the arrest of these people, and pointed out that only Himaval Bhadrananda has a criminal background in the group. Himaval was earlier arrested for threatening a police officer using a gun and also for some derogatory Facebook messages.
SUCI leadership has claimed that it was Shajirkhan who had first brought Jishnu Paranoy’s issue to the public. Even Jishnu’s family has said that SUCI leaders were helping them.
“Shajirkhan has been with Jishnu’s family during the last few months extending support. He was the education activist who brought out the issues of many private colleges in Kerala. He was a part of many struggles and agitations in the state's education sector. He was an SUCI activist who fought for educational reformations. Hebhad a role to play in protest against TOMS college in Kottayam and agitation against private college autocracy. Mini and Sreekumar were also SUCI activists who went there to help the family. Now they are being treated like terrorists,” SUCI Ernakulam district committee leader Francis Kalathunkal told The News Minute.
Meanwhile AN Shahjahan’s mother L Thankamma also alleged that he was being targeted by CPI (M) for criticising the party. She told media that Shahjahan reached the DGP office 30 minutes after the protest began.
She told media that Shahjahan visited the area to extend his support to the family.
Some reports suggest that Himaval Bhadrananda had taken prior permission to meet DGP for some other matter, anf that he was not aware about Jishnu’s family’s protest.
However, on Wednesday police forcefully arrested all those present outside the DGP office. Even a report filed by IG Manoj Abraham said that outsiders had created problems and police action was apt.