KOZHIKODE: The Vellayil Police on Sunday arrested one more person in the case related to the ransacking of DownTown restaurant in the city alleging immoral activities. Officials said Yuva Morcha Balussery Mandalam general secretary Babeesh, 30, Irumbottichalil, Unnikulam, was the arrested.
The Yuva Morcha leader was picked up from his paternal house after the special squad conducted a search there in the wee hours of Sunday. According to the officials, Babeesh is one among the accused who had moved a plea before District Principal and Sessions Court seeking anticipatory bail earlier.
Babeesh was nabbed under Sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 148 (Rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 427 (commits mischief and thereby causes loss or damage), 506 (criminal intimidation), 452 (trespass after preparation for hurt, and assault or wrongful restraint) r/w 149 (unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object) of the IPC. The Kozhikode Judicial First Class Magistrate Court IV, where Babeesh was produced before on Sunday, remanded him to judicial custody.The District Principal and Sessions Court will consider the plea moved by Yuva Morcha state general secretary K P Prakash Babu and others in the case, on Friday.
Meanwhile, C Mohandas, Principal SI, Vellayil, submitted a report citing that the granting of anticipatory bail to the accused would cause law and order issues and all the accused in the case were absconding.
Earlier, Yuva Morcha North Constituency President T Nivedh, 26, hailing from West Hill in the district, had been arrested in the case. A 20-member Yuva Morcha activists, carrying BJP party flags and raising slogans, had vandalised the restaurant, alleging that the hotel employees were providing facilities to youths to indulge in immoral activities inside the restaurant. The agitators destroyed the glass windowpanes, doors, an LED television and other valuables along with the seating arrangements near the parking area behind the hotel building.
Prior to the attack, a television channel had aired a report alleging immoral activities in the hotel, along with visuals from the parking area. The restaurant was one of the popular hangouts of NIT-C and IIM-K students. City Police Commissioner A V George had constituted a special squad to conduct an inquiry into the attack. K P Prakash Babu, state general secretary of Yuva Morcha, named the first accused in the case registered by Vellayil Police.
Meanwhile, Vellayil police registered another case in the incident as per the complaint and video clippings of the hotel submitted by P P Sudheer, state president of Yuva Morcha, before City Police Commissioner A V George.