KOCHI: `Crime’ fortnightly magazine chief editor T P Nandakumar has alleged that CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan is behind the harassment of him and the magazine’s associate editor Raju Hariharan.
He told a news conference here on Wednesday that they were arrested by the Cyber Cell of the Kerala Police from Kochi on July 3 on the basis of a complaint filed by one Alexander, the owner of the Chancellor Watches, alleging that he had published defamatory news about Alexander on the `Crime’ website.
He said that the police arrested them without waiting for the verdict on a petition seeking stay on the publication of the report in the Crime magazine which was scheduled to hit the stands on July 7.
He alleged that it was his conducting of the case against Pinarayi Vijayan in the SNC-Lavalin case which prompted the police to initiate action against him in a hasty manner.
Nandakumar said that he had submitted complaints to the Chief Minister and the DGP seeking a probe and release of the hard disk of the computers seized by the police.
He said in the complaint that Alexander had been involved in criminal cases in the UAE and had been convicted. He said that Alexander would be arrested if he landed in any airport in the UAE as he was wanted in criminal cases in that country.
Nandakumar said that `Crime’s’ report against Education Minister M A Baby and Pinarayi Vijayan must have prompted them to ``harass’’ him in the name of a complaint by Alexander. He claimed that Chief Minister had assured him of action on his complaint.