The police have arrested 18 LDF workers in connection with the attack on Chief Minister Oommen Chandy’s convoy on Sunday afternoon. The investigation team has also taken 42 LDF workers into custody in connection with the incident.
Kannur Town CI Vinodkumar told ‘Express’ on Monday that a case of attempt to murder the Chief Minister has been registered against 1,000 persons, including Payyannur MLA C Krishnan and Dharmadam MLA K K Narayanan (both belonging to the CPM).
The 18 persons arrested were produced before the Kannur JFCM court and 15 of them were remanded for 14 days.
The arrested include CPM’s four area committee members, four branch secretaries and three local secretaries and RSP district secretariat member Santhosh Mavila. Thaliparamba Municipal vice-chairman K Muraleedharan, District Panchayat member M Kunjiraman are also among those arrested.
Investigations are on and top police officers, including Kannur Range IG Sureshraj Purohit, district police chief Rahul R Nair, inspected the site where the attack on the CM’s convoy took place, police said.
Meanwhile, the LDF has alleged a conspiracy behind the arrests and said the police took innocent people into custody in connection with the incident. “The police arrested many of our workers in the middle of the night by breaking into their houses,” CPM leader M V Govindan master said.
District CPM secretary P Jayarajan added that there were instances earlier as well when a party MLA was arrested in connection with a murder case. “These kinds of suppressive measures are not new to our party,” he added.
Chandy sustained minor injuries on his forehead as a group of LDF workers pelted stones at his car in Kannur on Sunday.
The glass panel of the car in which Chandy was travelling was shattered in the stone pelting and some shards hit his forehead on two spots. Following the incident, there were protests in many palces.
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