KOCHI: Tension prevailed on Aluva police station premises on Wednesday, with political outfits, including the main Opposition Congress, BJP and the SDPI, staging separate protests demanding justice for the family members of Mofiya Parveen, Led by Aluva MLA Anwar Sadath and MP Benny Behanan, Congress workers staged a sit-in protest at the corridor of the police station.
With protesting Congress workers, including the MLA and the MP, in no mood to vacate the premises, police forcibly removed them. The police resorted to the use of water canon against Congress workers who attempted to scale the barricade placed in front of the police station to block the protesters. Several protesting Congressmen, including the MP and MLA, suffered injuries when police and protesters were involved in a scuffle. Later, MLAs Roji M John and Eldhose Kunnappilly also joined the protest.
MLA Anwar Sadath alleged that the police were trying to save SHO Sudheer. “There are several complaints against the SHO. Who will come to this station to lodge complaints/ grievances? We want the government and the chief minister, who holds home portfolio, to intervene in the pressing matter. There is no politics involved here,” he said, adding, the SHO did not register a case even after the complaint was lodged on November 20.
“Even an MLA has to stage a sit-in protest demanding action against the SHO, who misbehaved with a woman complainant. She approached the police with a domestic violence case,” said MP Benny Behanan. “This is ample evidence of the much-hyped woman safety promised by the LDF government in the state,” the MP added. The district Congress committee (DCC) has decided to continue the ongoing protests. BJP activists and Women India Movement also staged protests in front of Aluva police station demanding that the SHO should be booked for the suicide of Mofiya Parveen.