Four Congress workers were arrested on Friday for allegedly damaging Mahatma Gandhi’s portrait inside MP Rahul Gandhi’s office in Kerala’s Wayanad during an attack allegedly by members of Student Federation of India nearly two months ago, PTI reported.
The arrested Congress workers were identified as KR Ratheesh, SR Rahul, KA Mujeed and V Naushad, Onmanorama reported. Ratheesh is Gandhi’s personal assistant. They were all released on bail later on Friday.
On June 24, members of the Students’ Federation of India allegedly attacked Gandhi’s office over a Supreme Court order that protected forest tracts and wildlife sanctuaries and mandated them to have an eco-sensitive zone of 1-km starting from their demarcated boundaries.
The Students’ Federation of India is the youth wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which leads the ruling Left Democratic Alliance in Kerala. Members of the Students’ Federation of India led a march, seeking Gandhi’s intervention in favour of farmers who will be impacted by the court order.
Videos shared by the Congress showed persons holding the Students’ Federation of India flags as they climbed the wall of Gandhi’s office.
After the incident, Mahatma Gandhi’s portrait was found pulled down from the office wall, reported The Indian Express. The Congress members had alleged that the Students’ Federation of India was behind it. The Communist Party of India (Marxist), however, blamed it on the Congress.
On July 2, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had told the Kerala Assembly that the police had removed all the Students’ Federation of India members from inside Gandhi’s office by 3.54 pm. Congress workers, however, were still inside the office.
When a police photographer took pictures of the crime scene, the Mahatma Gandhi portrait was intact and hanging on the wall, Vijayan had said. Later in the evening when the police photographer took pictures of the crime scene again, the portrait was found damaged and lying on the floor, the chief minister added.
On Friday, the Kerala Police alleged that the portrait was infact vandalised by the Congress workers.
Ratheesh, however, called it a bogus case “registered to taint the Congress workers”, Onmanorama reported.
“The arrest was done with the complete knowledge of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan,” said Congress MLA from Kalpetta T Siddique. “He took such a step to appease the BJP ruling the Centre.”
President of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee K Sudhakaran also alleged that the arrest was part of a “conspiracy” hatched by the chief minister’s office.
“Kerala government and police are taking the approach of making the plaintiff the accused,” Sudhakaran said. “The arrest is politically motivated. The chief minister should clarify on what evidence that the innocent Congress workers were arrested. Even before the police investigation started, the chief minister had announced that the accused were Congressmen.”
Meanwhile, Communist Party of India (Marxist) District Secretary P Gagarin said that Friday’s arrests were made based on proof, reported Onmanorama.
Minister for Public Works Department and Tourism PA Muhammad Riyas urged the Congress to take disciplinary action against its workers for vandalising the portrait.
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