BJP and Congress flay police action on news portal in Kerala after CPM MLA’s complaint

Police had raided offices of the online media house across the state as well as houses of its journalists in connection with a case registered against its editor, Shajan Skaria. CPM legislator P V Sreenijan, who is the son-in-law of former Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan, had complained that Skaria intentionally humiliated him by making “false allegations and accusations through a video uploaded in Marunadan Malayali” on May 24. 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.

The Union minister said the government had filed cases against some TV channels and their journalists as well. “This recent example of using police to raid the offices and homes of a journalist to silence a YouTube channel when the matter is in court and when the person has appealed to the Supreme Court. To use this type of blatant intimidation from a chief minister who criticises our government for banning BBC’s documentaries and talks about free speech. So in our country, if there is hypocrisy and double standards about freedom of speech and if there is continuing politics of threat and intimidation, it is represented by the Left and Marxist government in Kerala. This is absolutely unacceptable and unconstitutional in a democracy,’’ he said.

Chandrasekhar said “these are the same people” who talk about freedom of speech and “support misinformation and lies about our prime minister and our government”. “But when it comes to scrutiny of their government, when questions are being raised about their governance, suddenly they become intolerant. This double standard, this hypocrisy must be known to the people of India and it should not be accepted and tolerated,’’ the BJP leader said.

Congress legislator and Opposition Leader V D Satheesan also questioned the police action against Marunadan Malayali.

“Why have police raided the houses of journalists and seized their gadgets on the pretext of investigating a case against its editor? CPM daily Deshabhimani had published a fake report that there is a statement against Congress state president K Sudhakaran in a Pocso case involving conman Monson Mavunkal. Why no case against it? Do police know the reporter behind the fake news? Why are the gadgets of the journalists not seized in this incident? The misuse of police against the media, by the CPI(M), is unprecedented in Kerala,” said Satheesan.