Supreme Court to hear anticipatory bail plea of Kerala portal editor today

The case was registered under sections 3(1)(r) and 3(1)(u) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, and section 120 of the Kerala Police Act.

Though Skaria contended that the news item did not refer to the caste of the legislator, the High Court ruled that “going by the wording of Section 3(1)(r), reference to the caste name of the victim is not necessary for attracting the offence” under the SC/ST Act.

On July 3, Kerala police searched the offices of the news portal and the residences of several people associated with it. During the searches at various locations, including offices at Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi, police seized several gadgets, including laptops and cameras.

In a video released on the Marunadan Malayali YouTube channel on July 4, Skaria had said “police have raided offices across the state as if they were looking for a terrorist.” “The raids were held not only at the houses of journalists, but even on the premises of their relatives and friends,” he added.

The Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) had condemned the police action. “Police are free to conduct a probe against Shajan if he is facing a case. But it is highly deplorable that houses of journalists associated with Marunadan Malayali were raided,” the KUWJ said in a statement.

On July 5, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar criticised the action against the news portal.

Referring to the police action, he said “as much as we have been criticising Congress and various state governments of using the law to silence media, I think it is important for the people of the country to look at what Pinarayi Vijayan is doing in Kerala…His CPM government has been beset with scam after scam ranging from gold smuggling to AI camera. It has been cracking down on the media repeatedly and has been using threats of intimidation to silence the media.”