BJP to take out 'mass march' to Commissioner's office on April 23 after clash with CPM in TVM

The BJP will take out a protest march to the Police Commissioner's office on April 22, demanding the removal of the Vattiyoorkavu Station House Officer, CI Vipin A C, who, according to the party, was acting like a henchman of the CPM and had used third-degree methods against innocent BJP workers.

“If this CI Vipin continues in his job, we fear that even murders could take place in the area. To avoid this, either he should be transferred or placed on leave,” BJP district president Karamana Jayan said on Tuesday. 

He said that the party had placed this demand before the Commissioner, K Karthik. “The Commissioner had said that he would consider our request favourably, but no action has still been taken. This means that the CPM has strongly intervened in the issue,” Jayan said.

Later in the day, BJP's women councillors took out a 'mahila march' to the Vattiyoorkavu Police Station as a warning measure before a “mass protest march” to the City Police Commissioner's office on April 22. The mass march will be led by BJP state vice president and former DGP R Sreelekha. 

“If our demand is not met even after these two protests, we will intensify our agitation,” Jayan said.

The BJP's demand for the removal of the CI comes after two consecutive days of bloody and prolonged BJP-CPM clash in the Malamukal area of Thiruvananthapuram Corporation. The issue began as a dispute between neighbours. It was alleged that a man verbally abused and indulged in indecent exposure before the lady of the other house. 

The incident flared up into a major political clash after a group of people, allegedly CPM workers, roughed up the husband, a local BJP leader named Binu, who was returning after filing a police complaint against the neighbour. Binu had to be rushed to the Peroorkada District hospital.

When things escalated into a gang war of sorts at Malamukal junction, the Vattiyoorkavu police intervened. The charge was that CI Vipin behaved in an impartial manner, lathi-charging only the BJP workers. In retaliation, stones were pelted at the police, and the police fought back with materials collected from a nearby shop. Civil police officer Deepu was injured in the stone-throwing. 

The BJP says that the stones were thrown by the CPM workers, with the intention of implicating the BJP. “We have video proof showing the direction from which the stones were coming. We have shown this to the Commissioner and he was convinced,” Jayan, the BJP district president, said. 

On April 20, next day, a police team barged into the first floor of the Balasubramaniam Temple office, forced open the entrance door, and took six BJP-RSS workers into custody and, on the way to the Armed Reserve Camp at Nandavanam, was allegedly violently beaten up by the police. “Some of them were not even involved in the case,” BJP vice president R Sreelekha said. 

BJP's Nettayam area secretary Binu, who had initially filed a complaint with the police, had his face punched near the eye. Photographs show him bleeding profusely from under his right eye. Sreelekha said that Binu was attacked only because he filed a complaint against a CPM worker. “The CPM somehow could not stomach the fact that someone had dared to complain against a party man,” she said.

After the news of the alleged police violence spread, BJP workers collected in large numbers before the AR camp. Until Mayor V V Rajesh arrived on the spot, the police did not allow any BJP leader to enter the camp premises to talk to the arrested workers. 

Later, the police removed Binu and another local BJP leader Ayyappan from the list of the accused. 

The former DGP also said that the police had no authority to step into the premises of a temple without taking the permission of the temple authorities. She said there were Supreme Court guidelines and central and state government orders that prohibited the entry of police into places of worship.