THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The city police will move ahead with its action against SFI members, who were booked in connection with the violence that erupted during the student outfit’s Secretariat march on Wednesday.
The police had registered cases under non-bailable sections, including attempt-to-murder, against 31 SFI members. So far three arrests have been made in connection with the case.
SFI Thiruvananthapuram district secretariat member, Manesh, and two central committee members, Adarsh and Tony Kuriakose, were arrested by the Cantonment police.
The last two were arrested from a private hospital where they had sought treatment for injuries allegedly sustained in the police lathicharging. Their arrest triggered a late-night protest march by the DYFI cadres to the Cantonment police station. A senior city police official said, the police will continue with arrests of the accused.
“We will go ahead with legal action against the accused. We are treating the protests organised by these outfits against the arrests as a normal reaction to police action. We are not going to get intimidated by these tactics,” the officer added. The SFI had marched to the Secretariat on Wednesday in protest against the police action on SFI members, who took part in an agitation in front of the Kerala University against full rendering of Vande Mataram during the National Sports Day on Tuesday.
Unrest erupted in front of the Secretariat after the police blocked the protestors. As the protestors tried to remove the barricade, the cops trained water guns at them.
As the protestors held their ground, the cops resorted to lathicharging following which the premises outside the Secretariat turned into a war zone. The SFI members were alleged to have manhandled the Cantonment Assistant Commissioner Jayachandran during the showdown. Several SFI members sustained injuries. Opposition Leader Pinarayi Vijayan had visited the injured at the hospital and criticized the police action.
Non-bailable
The police had registered cases under non-bailable sections, including attempt-to-murder, against 31 SFI members. So far three arrests have been made in connection with the case.