Pathanamthitta (Keralam) | CCTV footage purportedly showing a group of Youth Congress workers assaulting a YouTuber inside a police station in Keralam in July has surfaced, prompting the CPI(M) to seek action against those allegedly involved.
The visuals, aired by television channels on Saturday, showed a group of Youth Congress workers allegedly manhandling YouTuber Rajan Joseph while he was in police custody at Adoor police station.
The footage appeared to show Congress leader Sreena Devi Kunjamma, who had filed a complaint against Joseph, entering the station and allegedly challenging him.
Joseph was arrested by the Adoor police in July following a complaint by Kunjamma, a Congress district panchayat member, alleging that he had posted defamatory content about her on social media.
The incident took place on July 11, when Joseph was brought to the police station after being arrested in Kochi.
The Adoor police subsequently registered a case against around 20 people, including Youth Congress workers, in connection with an alleged attempt to assault Joseph while he was being brought to the station.
Following the emergence of the CCTV footage, CPI(M) leaders here demanded stringent action against Kunjamma and Youth Congress leaders, including Fenny Nainan, alleging that the visuals showed Joseph being assaulted and intimidated inside the police station.
CPI(M) leaders reportedly obtained the footage from the police station under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. However, Youth Congress leaders, including Nainan, have denied that any assault took place.
Nainan told a television channel that they had gone to the police station only to protest after learning of Joseph's arrest and had not manhandled him.
Soon after Joseph's arrest in July, Kunjamma had claimed in a Facebook post that the YouTuber had repeatedly challenged the police to arrest him before he was taken into custody.
She had said Joseph was brought to Adoor police station at around 10.30 pm and that she had seen him sitting on the floor of a lock-up cell.
"I spoke to him briefly, introduced myself, and then left," she had said in the post.