Close on the heels of what happened to Alt News editor Mohammed Zubair, Kerala’s news anchor Vinu V. John of Asianet News feels that he too might end up the way Zubair did as he was surprised to know that a case has been registered against him.
John said Kerala is now ruled by ‘fascists’ and no one knows if I will be able to appear before you tomorrow.
“I do not know if I will be able to get bail like Sabarinadhan (Youth Congress vice president) got bail a few hours after he was arrested on Tuesday. All this has taken place because of Pinarayi Vijayan and I offer a 100 crore salutations to him,” said John, in the course of anchoring a prime news bulletin.
John said he came to know about the case after he was told by a police official when he had given his passport for renewal, that there was a criminal case against him.
“It was then I found out that a criminal case was registered based on a complaint filed by CPI-M Rajya sabha member Elamaram Kareem. The incident occurred when I was anchoring the news bulletin on March 28 and the case was filed on April 28 and the FIR against me under various Sections of the IPC,” said John.
John, who is known for his sharp and cryptic comments against wrongdoers, expressed his ire as Kerala witnessed a total bandh and workers taking part in the protests literally took over the streets of the state with citizens running for shelter.
John was peeved when a patient who was being moved in an auto- rickshaw drew the ire of the protesters in north Kerala.
In the news hour debate, he made a statement that if anyone did such a thing to the CITU general secretary Elamaram Kareem, a Rajya Sabha member and a CPI-M leader, what would have happened.
The cyber wing of the CPI-M soon latched on to it and it turned out to be a free for all with John coming under attack. Kareem said he will register a complaint with the police chief and also before the chairperson of the Rajya Sabha.
Soon after this incident in March, the local CITU unit pasted posters at the house of John.
The posters were in the name of the CITU Peroorkada Area Committee which gave a call for protests against John and to isolate him.
A few days later trade union workers of various political parties except the BJP marched to the Malayalam TV news channel Asianet to register their protest against the comment made by John.
Incidentally for a while now the ruling CPI-M and especially Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan have continued to have a grudge against Asianet TV.
And now with Vijayan allegedly using the police against opponents including seven times former legislator P.C.George who was arrested twice in different cases in the past few weeks and the arrest of Sabarinadhan, a two time former Congress legislator and Youth Congress vice-president, on Tuesday, John also fears he might be picked up.