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Kerala Youth Cong chief arrested over secretariat march violence
Mamkootathil, who assumed the president’s post in November last year following an organisational election, is the fourth accused in the case registered in connection with the protests
Kerala youth Congress chief Rahul Mamkootathil was arrested on Tuesday in connection with his alleged role in the violent protests near the secretariat on December 21 last year, police said.
Mamkootathil’s arrest triggered protests by the Congress and its affiliates across the state. Mamkootathil who was taken into custody by the Cantonment police in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday from his home in Adoor was remanded to judicial custody till January 22 by a local court after his bail application was rejected, said the officials familiar with the matter.“It was chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s decision to arrest me in front of my mother, but I won’t stop my fight here,” the Youth Congress president said, sitting in the police vehicle.
Mamkootathil, who assumed the president’s post in November last year following an organisational election, is the fourth accused in the case registered in connection with the protests organised by the party in December. While the first accused is the Leader of Opposition VD Satheesan, the second and third accused are MLAs Shafi Parambil and M Vincent.
“Rahul has been booked for offences including unlawful assembly, rioting, illegally resisting lawful apprehension for offence, unlawful return from transportation, causing obstruction in public way, voluntarily causing harm to public worker and assaulting public servant,” said a police officer on the condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, workers of the Youth Congress staged protests in state by blocking roads and highways. They also burnt effigies of chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
Reacting to the arrest, Congress leaders questioned the “timing of the arrest since Rahul was in Thiruvananthapuram for nearly three weeks during which he had also fallen ill”.
His mother, who was at home at the time of Mamkootathil’s detention, said, “Many of the police personnel who came to the house didn’t know what was happening. They said that there was a directive from the top to arrest Rahul from his home,” his mother alleged.
Satheesan slammed the police for the “abrupt manner” of arrest and said that “he was neither a criminal nor a terrorist”.
“The same government and police which allowed a person accused of raping and killing a six-year-old child to escape from justice have arrested Rahul from his house early in the morning,” said Satheesan.
State Congress president K Sudhakaran warned the LDF government and the police of retaliation. In a statement, he said, “Rahul was arrested based on the clear conspiracy hatched between the CPI (M) and the police. If he had been issued a notice, he would have appeared before the police on his own. Instead, like criminals, he has been arrested from his home in the early morning hours.”
Defending the arrest, LDF convener EP Jayarajan , however, said: “As the chief of the youth Congress, does he have special protection? Don’t laws and rules apply to him? If he goes and assaults police officers with sticks and stones, will he not face action?”
