The Kerala Police on Sunday conducted a raid at the Kozhikode office of the popular Malayalam news channel Asianet News. The raid was carried out on the basis of a complaint filed by Left independent MLA P V Anvar. The raid came  two days after the  activists of the Student Federation of India (SFI), the students wing of CPI-M , allegedly attacked the  Asianet news channel office in Kochi.

Asianet sources said that the police inspected computers and collected the address and phone numbers of its employees. Though the work was disrupted for some time it has fully cooperated  with the probe, they said.

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“Attempts to intimidate the channel will not succeed and it will approach the court against the police move,” a spokesman of the channel said.

The issue relates to the complaint raised against the channel that it “faked” an interview of a minor girl in connection with a news report on the drug mafia.

Police registered a case against four persons including journalists of Asianet News on the complaint of filming fake scenes. The case is  registered against K Shahjahan and Naufal Bin Yusuf and two others,under charges of POCSO, forgery and conspiracy.

Opposition parties have condemned the police raid, terming it as an attack against the freedom of the media .Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala said Pinarayi Vijayan has turned another Modi by silencing his critics.

“The CPI-M  always talks big about media freedom and condemned the raid on BBC last week in the strongest terms. But this is worse than the BBC raid,” Ramesh Chennithala said.

BJP state unit president K Surendran said that “the police action reminds us of emergency days. This is another instance of growing fascist tendencies of the LDF government.”

On Friday, a group of 30 SFI members entered the Asianet News regional  office in Kochi, forced their way past security guards, and interfered in press operations by yelling slogans and also threatening the staff members and journalists on Friday evening .

 The SFI alleged Asianet had “faked” the interview of a minor girl in connection with a news report on the drug mafia.The SFI alleged that the media house is ‘crossing the limits and is forgetting the media ethics’.

The police registered a case under IPC sections 143, 147, 149, 447 and 506. Charges of unlawful assembly, creating tension, trespassing and intimidation have been charged against the SFI workers.