Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Governor's car suffered a loss of Rs 76,357 during the attack against Arif Mohammed Khan here on Sunday as per a certificate produced by the Raj Bhavan. The Kerala police has submitted the certificate to a local court along with the remand report.
While considering the report, the court observed that the atrocity was committed against the first citizen of the state.
Governor Khan's vehicle was allegedly hit by activists of the SFI, the student wing of the CPI(M), while he was on his way to the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport to leave for Delhi on Monday evening. Eighteen SFI activists were later arrested in connection with that incident.
The police confirmed that the accused have damaged the official vehicle while opposing the bail for those arrested in court. They argued that it might set a bad precedent for other political organisations. The prosecution also opposed the bail plea of the accused. According to the remand report, if the SFI members are likely to weaken the case using political influence if they are let out on bail.
Out of the seven accused in the case, six were remanded to custody by the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court 3. The sixth accused Aman Gafoor was granted interim bail as he has an LLB exam. The other accused are Yadhukrishnan, Ashique Pradeep, Ashish R G, Dileep, Ryan and Rino Stephen.
While Adv Kallampalli Manu argued for the prosecution that the accused had committed serious offences, AA Hakim, appearing for the accused, argued that the students were only protesting and the governor was not detained.
Khan vs Pinarayi
Training his guns directly at the Kerala Chief Minister and the Left wing Students Federation of India, Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan on Tuesday claimed that his car was "attacked" by SFI activists at the behest of CM Pinarayi Vijayan. The Governor, presently in New Delhi, reiterated his call for a report on the financial health of the state government amid claims of an ongoing financial emergency in Kerala.
Referring to the SFI students blocking the car, Khan noted that if anybody tries to overhaul the Governor, it is a cognisable offence and has to be dealt with under section 124 of IPC. The Governor said he had already sent messages to the Chief Secretary and the state DGP making it clear that mere hauling up was not enough.
The Governor also sought to know what sections were invoked against KSU activists for throwing chappals against a bus in which the CM and the other ministers were travelling as part of the Nava Kerala Sadas.
After meeting Khan at Kerala Bhavan, Union Minister V Muralidharan and former president of the BJP's state unit slammed the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government over Monday's incident and said it depicted the dangerous situation and the level of law and order situation in Kerala.
SFI, CPM support protest against Guv
Meanwhile, the SFI leadership made it clear that they would continue their agitation against Governor Khan and his alleged moves to saffronise the universities in the southern state. SFI state secretary P M Arsho accused the Governor of initiating various steps to saffronise the state universities and said nominating people with RSS and BJP backgrounds to the senates of Kerala and Calicut universities was the last instance in this regard. Ministers P Rajeev, A K Saseendran and V A Mohammed Riyas came out in support of SFI while hitting out at Khan.
Riyas targeted the opposition Congress for coming down on the ruling party's youth outfit in this connection, saying they were preaching the politics of BJP inside and outside the assembly.
(With PTI inputs.)
