Pinarayi Vijayan alleges police lapses in RSS ideologue T G Mohandas's arrest
Pinarayi Vijayan alleged police failed to follow legal procedures arresting RSS ideologue T G Mohandas for provocative YouTube comments.
Pinarayi Vijayan alleged police failed to follow legal procedures arresting RSS ideologue T G Mohandas for provocative YouTube comments.
Pinarayi Vijayan alleged police failed to follow legal procedures arresting RSS ideologue T G Mohandas for provocative YouTube comments.
Thiruvananthapuram: Opposition Leader Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday alleged that the police did not follow basic legal procedures while arresting RSS ideologue T G Mohandas in a case over provocative comments against protesters at Jantar Mantar in a YouTube video.
Mohandas was earlier granted bail by the Thiruvananthapuram Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Court. While granting bail, the court flagged a serious lapse on part of the police in not issuing a notice to him. The BNSS provision mandates that the police officer should issue a notice directing the person, against whom a reasonable complaint has been made, to appear before her/him or at such other place as may be specified in the notice, if the arrest was not required.
Pinarayi Vijayan alleged that the arrest was carried out as a "showboat" in front of others and claimed that the police had not followed adequate legal procedures before taking Mohandas into custody.
"The police have not followed adequate legal procedures before his arrest," Pinarayi said, adding that the police appeared to have acted on instructions from someone else. He said Mohandas's remarks had earlier been widely condemned and noted that he is an RSS ideologue.
Pinarayi also said the Kerala Police was not an organisation that was unaware of the basic procedures to be followed before making an arrest.
The Cyber Police arrested Mohandas on Sunday after registering a case based on a complaint filed by advocate Abdul Khasim, a state organising committee member of Young Democrats, Kerala. The police subsequently received 20 more complaints alleging similar remarks.
In its remand report, the police said Mohandas had confessed to the offence during interrogation. The report also stated that digital evidence was seized during a search of his residence in Mattanchery on Sunday.
The police had opposed his bail plea, arguing that Mohandas could tamper with evidence and that the administrator of the YouTube channel was yet to be traced.