KPCC president K Sudhakaran, MP, on Sunday said that the Congress party would take legal action against the illegal detention of party activists and leaders on account of the Chief Minister’s tours and public events.
Sudhakaran said that in Kerala a situation has arisen wherein people cannot go out from their houses to places where Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has public events. In all the districts including Kannur, Palakkad, Kozhikode and Ernakulam, where the Chief Minister has programmes,the policemen are acting as if an undeclared emergency is in place in the state, Sudhakaran said in Thiruvananthapuram.
He said the police action in blocking the public and imprisoning political opponents , for paving way for Chief Minister’s tours and programmes are highly condemnable.
The Congress Kerala chief pointed out that Section 151 of CrPC is being misused by the police for the Chief Minister, and that the Congress will legally question the dictatorial actions of the cowardly Chief Minister.
Sudhakaran said that there are some legal provisions in the country for preventive detention. The law does not say to detain someone to protect a person’s narrow interests. He said because of the black flag fear of the Chief Minister, Muslim women in the state are not able to wear purdah. The police chase and arrest people who come out wearing black clothes, he added.
The police are creating an atmosphere of terror in the state because of the Chief Minister’s itinerary, he said, stating that the movement of the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan by holding the people under hostage is a threat to the entire Kerala society.
Sudhakaran said that in a democratic system protesting is not a crime.
Meanwhile, it has been reported that black clothes and masks were banned at the Government Arts and Science College in Kozhikode, where CM Vijayan took part in a programme. Earlier, the police took a group of Kerala Students Union (KSU) members into custody as a precautionary measure.