A shoe was reportedly thrown at the special bus when the Chief Minister and his Cabinet colleagues were travelling through the district.
Published Dec 23, 2023 | 1:13 PM ⚊ Updated Dec 23, 2023 | 3:08 PM
Pinarayi Vijayan at the Nava Kerala Sadas. (X)
Justifying the registration of a case against a woman journalist in connection with the hurling of shoes at the bus on which he and his Cabinet colleagues were travelling, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the police action was based on evidence.
There won’t be any hindrance for any journalist to perform their duty but conspiracy could not be entertained, he told a press conference in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday, 23 December.
Vijayan was responding to a question about the registration of a case by Kurupumpady police in the Ernakulam district against television news reporter Vineetha VG.
A visibly angry chief minister said police registered the case based on evidence and challenged the journalists to prove if it was not correct.
When reporters confronted him with a volley of queries, Vijayan said no one should think that they could raise their voice and intimidate anyone.
“The police have registered a case (against the journalist). They said that there was a conspiracy behind it (the incident). But, you are denying that. If it is so, you prove it… who has an issue?” he asked.
Alleging that there are media persons good at plotting, Vijayan said they had to face the case as well.
He also made it clear that there was no need for him to examine the police action as he trusted the law enforcers.
Vineetha of the Malayalam channel, 24 News, was arraigned as the fifth accused in the incident of shoe hurling at a bus carrying Vijayan.
A shoe was reportedly thrown at the special bus at Odakkali near Perumbavoor in the Ernakulam district when the chief minister and his Cabinet colleagues were heading to Kothamangalam as part of the ‘Nava Kerala Sadas’ outreach programme on 10 December.
The police probed the incident and registered a case against four identified KSU workers, including its state president Basil Parekkudy. They have been booked under IPC sections 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy), 283 (causing danger, obstruction or, injury in any public way or line of navigation) and 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty).
Confirming the development, a senior police officer said a case in this regard was registered on 10 December and the journalist was arraigned later after “understanding that she also had her own role in the incident.”
Vineetha was the only reporter at the scene when the incident happened. She reported the incident along with the visuals.
Meanwhile, the Opposition Congress flayed the Left government over the issue and termed it an “anti-democratic act.”
The Nava Kerala Sadas would conclude in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday evening.
On Monday, 18 December, a magistrate court at Perumbavoor in Ernakulam district asked the Kerala police how waving black flags and hurling shoes at the chief minister’s vehicle and his convoy would become an attempt to murder.
The judge was hearing the bail application moved by a set of Congress workers who waved black flags and hurled shoes at the chief minister’s convoy.
The court also advised the police to remember the need to guard the general public’s safety while being overly cautious about the safety of the Chief Minister and his Cabinet.
All KSU workers arraigned in the case were given bail.
Confirming the development, a senior police officer said that a case in this regard was registered on 10 December and the journalist was arraigned later after “understanding that she also had her own role in the incident”.
“We had registered a case against four persons we identified on the spot under various sections of Indian Penal Code. When the investigation progressed and the details were collected, she was also arraigned,” he told PTI.
He also said that more person might be arraigned in the case in the coming days. However, he was not ready to specify what crime was committed by the woman journalist and under which section of IPC she was booked. The officer said this would be decided only after a detailed interrogation.
In recently-issued summons to the reporter, police said, “During the investigation, it is revealed that there are reasonable grounds to question you to ascertain facts and circumstances from you, in relation to the present investigation.”
The registration of the case against the journalist for reporting the incident was an “encroachment” on fearless and independent journalism, KPCC chief K Sudhakaran said.
He urged chief minister Vijayan, who holds the Home portfolio, to explain how it would become a conspiracy if a journalist did her job. Strongly condemning the police action, the leader also urged the government to withdraw the case and restore press freedom in the southern state.
On Friday, the Chief Minister said the protest against the Nava Kerala Sadas was a reflection of Congress party and its youth outfits being disturbed by the new generation giving immense support to the state government, “This support is disturbing certain people,” he said.
Protesters jumping in front of vehicles was their initial mode of protest and at one point, it reached the level of throwing shoes at our bus, he alleged.
Vijayan said he and his Cabinet colleagues were travelling together on the bus to attend the Nava Kerala Sadas programme and certain people suddenly jumped in front of the vehicle.
“I only saw the policemen in uniform blocking them,” he said, adding that his other security personnel were not there at that moment.
He also criticised the Opposition Congress and the media for consistently criticising the Nava Kerala Sadas, his government’s ambitious outreach programme, and said that the initiative was for the welfare of the state and its people.
The Nava Kerala Sadas yatra has been witnessing wide-spread violence with Youth Congress and KSU workers waving black flags at the chief minister’s motorcade, and the police and DYFI workers attacking the protestors.
Vijayan drew flak earlier when he justified his partymen’s act as “life saving”. He said the DYFI workers were saving the protestors from being run over by the bus on which he was travelling.
On Friday, a vehicle in the motorcade ran over the feet of the Congress’s Kattakkada Block Secretary Ansaladas. DYFI workers attacked a fallen and injured Ansaladas with iron rods and laths. He later underwent a surgery at the Medical College Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram.
The ruling LDF has been accused of targeting journalists who criticise the government or its activists.
On 6 June this year, Akhila Nandakumar of Asianet News gave a live report on the SFI state president PM Arsho’s name figuring on the list of students who had cleared the third semester MA Archeology exam, though he had not taken the test.
Though she was arraigned as the fifth accused for trying to defame Arsho, the police later dropped her name. The registration of the case — based on Arsho’s complaint — against Nandakumar triggered an outcry against the police and the government in the case, since she had clearly attributed the quote to a KSU activist of Maharaja’s College.
The college later said that Arsho’s name was included in the list due to a technical error.
Nandakumar’s senior colleague Vinu V John was earlier summoned for questioning over his remark in a panel discussion on an LDF hartal that the Front’s leaders, too, should face the same inconvenience that the people face during such shutdowns.
Jayachandran Elankath, a Special Correspondent with the Malayala Manorama daily, was interrogated after he reported on the alleged backdoor appointments in a public sector firm.
DYFI workers physically attacked two journalists from The Fourth News on 7 December while they were covering the alleged attack of CPI(M) cadre on Youth Congress activists waving black flags at Vijayan’s Nava Kerala Sadas near TB Junction Road at Angamaly in the Ernakulam district.
(With PTI inputs)
