Police raids online portal’s office in defamation case filed by Kerala MLA

The searches come days after the Kerala high court on June 30 declined Shajan Skariah’s appeal for anticipatory bail following the registration of a case against him

KOCHI: A team of Kochi city police carried out searches at the offices of online Malayalam news portal “Marunadan Malayalee” and the residence of its journalists in Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi late Monday night and Tuesday to trace its editor Shajan Skariah in connection with a criminal defamation case filed against him by Communist Party of India (M) legislator PV Srinijin, people familiar with the matter said,

A police officer said computers, laptops, memory cards and other gadgets have been seized during the searches. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The searches come days after the Kerala high court on June 30 declined Shajan Skariah’s appeal for anticipatory bail following the registration of a case against him at Elamakkara police station in Kochi. Srinijin alleged that Skariah and his channel defamed him in a video put out on the portal’s YouTube channel.

A police officer said computers, laptops, memory cards and other gadgets have been seized during the searches.

The Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) said it did not agree with the style of functioning of the portal, but condemned the searches at the residences of journalists, especially women. Such police actions were unheard of.

At the same time, it added, that if there was a case against the media portal and its editor, it must be investigated impartially.

The portal also condemned the searches and said that Skariah approached the Supreme Court against the high court decision.

After the searches ended, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sandeep Vachaspati, who unsuccessfully contested the 2021 assembly elections in Kerala, appeared in a video on the portal’s YouTube channel, condemned the searches which he described as an attack on the portal and criticised the state’s LDF government