They were protesting demanding the release of a group of party activists who were arrested for staging a black flag protest against the CM.
Congress leaders before the march to the DGP office in Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala on Saturday, 23 December, 2023. (INCKerala/X)
Three MLAs and a Lok Sabha member from the Opposition Congress in Kerala have been booked for staging a blockade at a local police station on 1 January night, the police said in Kochi on Tuesday, 2 January.
They were protesting at the police station demanding the release of a group of party activists who were arrested for staging a black flag protest against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his cabinet colleagues.
The police said charges of rioting and obstruction of duty have been registered against them.
Tension prevailed at Palarivattom police station in Kochi on Monday night as Congress workers protested the arrest of their colleagues.
The protest ended after the police produced the arrested workers before a magistrate in the early hours of Tuesday, leading to their release on bail.
Congress leaders, including Ernakulam MP Hibi Eden, and MLAs Uma Thomas, TJ Vinod, and Anwar Sadath, claimed that the police mistreated them when they arrived at the police station to inquire about the denial of station bail for the arrested party workers.
“A case has been registered against the MP, three MLAs, and a group of other Congress leaders for rioting and obstruction of police duties. Various sections of the IPC, including 143, 147, 283, read with 149, have been slapped against them,” a police officer said.
Meanwhile, the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Assembly, VD Satheesan, strongly criticised the police’s actions against Congress leaders and workers.
He alleged that the chief minister had adopted a policy prohibiting protests against him and his government.
Addressing a press conference in Kochi, Satheesan also claimed that the police, influenced by leaders of the ruling CPI(M), attempted to falsely implicate Congress workers in the black flag protest incident to send them to prison.
On Monday night, the Congress leaders claimed that the police initially agreed to release the party workers on station bail, but later refused after the intervention of local CPI(M) leaders.
The protesters had also burnt an effigy of the chief minister in front of the police station.
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