Three members of the Kerala Youth Congress have been charged with an attempt to murder after staging a protest inside an airplane flying Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The Valiyathura police department registered the case under Indian Penal Code Section 307 after receiving a complaint from Chief Minister’s bodyguard Anil Kumar. The Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will also look into the incident.
Farzeen Majeed, Naveen Kumar, and Sunith Kumar, all Kannur residents, are the accused in the case. Other allegations against them include obstructing official duties, conspiring, and engaging in activities that endanger the plane’s safety.
Former MLA K S Sabarinathan shared a video clip of the incident on social media, showing the two being pushed by a person accompanying the Chief Minister and the accused asking whether they have the right to question. Sabarinathan later claimed that LDF leader E P Jayarajan shoved the protesting Youth Congress activists. Two of the three accused Youth Congress activists are being treated at the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College under police protection after claiming to have been beaten up during the incident.
What is the matter?
On Monday, activists of the Kerala Youth Congress boarded a commercial flight flying Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to Thiruvananthapuram from Kannur, waving black flags in protest of alleged police harassment.
The chief minister was at Kannur on a three-day official tour. The Youth Congress workers were nabbed by the CM’s security team and LDF leader Jayarajan, who was accompanying Vijayan, and were handed over to the CISF. Jayarajan described the incident as worse than a “terrorist strike.” The incident was also criticized by CPI(M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, who claimed that Youth Congress workers were plotting to attack the CM.
Meanwhile, Congress leader VD Satheesan described it as a “symbolic protest against police repression.” Farzeen Majid, head of the Youth Congress Mattanur block and one of the protestors, claimed that their objective was just to register a protest, and they were “brutally beaten” at the airport by the CM’s security team and Jayarajan, making them suffer serious injuries.
According to police, the Youth Congress activists started chanting slogans after the CM took his seat. Kannur range DIG Rahul Nair stated that they received an intelligence tip on this and warned the CISF, but the youth Congress workers managed to board the plane after displaying the medical history of a cancer patient receiving treatment at the Regional Cancer Centre in Thiruvananthapuram.
According to sources, this incident also prompted attacks on certain Congress offices, including the State Headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram, purportedly by members of the CPI(M) and its youth wing DYFI.
Attack on Congress offices
Unknown attackers threw a crude bomb at the Congress office in Perambra, Kozhikode, at approximately 12:55 a.m. on Tuesday, shattering the windows and doors of the building.
Aside from Kozhikode, similar attacks occurred in other regions of the state. The head office of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee was also attacked purportedly by DYFI workers. Protesters also pelted stones at the KPCC and vandalized a vehicle parked in front of the building. Congress leaders claimed that the attack was carried out by CPM workers to retaliate against the protest by Youth Congress workers.
