Five BJP workers in custody for attacking woman cop

Ernakulam: The Paravur police on Thursday took five BJP workers into custody in connection with the attack on a woman police officer at Thuruthipuram.

P N Sheeja, a special branch officer attached to the Vadakkekara police station, was assaulted by a group of BJP workers on Wednesday during a protest march over the entry of two women of child-bearing age into Sabarimala.

She was manhandled by the gang when she attempted to click photographs of them blocking a KSRTC bus during the march. The protesters grabbed her and took away her mobile phone before slapping and pushing her down.

Sheeja’s husband, a KSRTC employee, who reached there by chance, was also assaulted by the gang.

Two persons, Adichal Santhosh, 42, and Kalappattu Unnikrishnan, 35, both natives of Kodungallur, had been arrested soon after the incident. The police confirmed that the 10-member bike-borne gang that unleashed violence in the area hailed from Kodungallur. The mobile phone is yet to be recovered.

The bus stopped by the protesters was operating on the Guruvayoor-Cherthala route. They had earlier blocked the same bus near the Kottapuram bridge, but the Kodungallur police’s intervened and allowed the bus to proceed. 

The agitators got angry when they were booed by a section of passengers. They chased the bus in their motorbikes and staged a blocked when it reached near the petrol bunk at Thuruthipuram.

Before that incident, the same group of protesters had allegedly smashed the windshield of another KSRTC bus near Chakkumarassery. The woman cop was on her way to the police station after recording a video of the incident when she came under attack for clicking photos of the road blockade.

She is currently undergoing treatment at the Paravur Taluk hospital.

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