Congress Condemns ‘Brutal’ Police Assault on MP Shafi Parambil, Links It to Sabarimala Controversy

Senior Congress officials denounced the police attack on Shafi Parambil, a party MP, on Saturday, saying it was an attempt to deflect attention away from the alleged anomalies at the Sabarimala shrine of Lord Ayyappa.

Senior Congress leaders Ramesh Chennithala, Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, M K Raghavan, and Mullappally Ramachandran, along with AICC general secretary K C Venugopal and Assembly Leader of the Opposition V D Satheesan, denounced the "brutal assault" on Parambil at Perambra in Kozhikode district on Friday.

Venugopal described the move as the CPI(M) using an "escape tactic" to avoid the negative reaction to the Sabarimala issue.

Speaking to the media, he alleged, "What happened in Sabarimala was the biggest loot in Kerala".

Later in the evening, at a protest meet held at Perambra bus station, where Parambil was allegedly assaulted, Venugopal contended that had the Kerala High Court not intervened, the Left government and the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) would have turned the Lord Ayyappa temple "completely into copper".

"The issue is being widely discussed everywhere and embarrassed by the situation, the CPI(M) workers lost their mental balance and decided to take out their frustration against their enemy -- Parambil," the MP from Alappuzha said.

Speaking to the large crowd at the location, he emphasised that a police officer should never touch a member of parliament.
A medical bulletin from the Baby Memorial Hospital in Kozhikode stated that Parambil had buckling of the nasal septum and fractures to both his right and left nasal bones.

Additionally, it stated that he was moved to the intensive care unit for post-operative monitoring following surgery.

"At present, the patient is hemodynamically stable, conscious and recovering satisfactorily under the supervision of our expert clinical care teams. As per medical advice, he will require adequate rest for recovery," the hospital said.

Satheesan alleged, in a Facebook post, that "criminals in CPI(M) and goondas in the police" assaulted the Congress MP deliberately.

"Such actions will not break the fighting spirit of the party and its leaders," he said, and added that it will not divert public attention from the Sabarimala issue.

In a similar vein, Chennithala asked why the police permitted two opposing parties' rallies to cross the same route.

The attack on Parambil happened after UDF and LDF protesters confronted each other at the Perambra bus stop on Friday.

After violence broke out over the student union election at CKGM Government student, Perambra, the Congress planned a hartal to protest police action against its leaders and Kerala Students' Union (KSU) activists on Thursday.

Chennithala questioned why only one group was assaulted and how the police officers did not understand that Parambil was an MP.

Radhakrishnan claimed it was a cruel assault on a people's representative with the intention to "kill him".

"It is police goondaism. We will not accept it," he said.

Ramachandran and Raghavan both levelled similar charges against the police.

The leaders of Congress called for the police personnel engaged in the event to face consequences.

In response to the attack on Parambil, Congress and its youth wing staged rallies around the state during the day.

However, State General Education Minister V Sivankutty asserted that police beatings during protests were not unusual.

He said that over his more than 40-year political career, he had been repeatedly assaulted by police during demonstrations and had to stay in the hospital for weeks to receive treatment. "All this is nothing new," he argued.

The minister added that everyone implicated in the purported irregularities in Sabarimala would face consequences and would not be able to evade the law.

In the meantime, 700 individuals, including Parambil, were charged by police on Saturday with several charges related to the UDF event in Perambra, including rioting, assaulting officials, and impeding their work.

The police said that UDF leaders and members staged a rally on Friday night that blocked the public road. When they were stopped, they stoned police officers to prevent them from carrying out their duties.

A case under sections 189 (unlawful assembly), 191 (rioting), 285 (danger or obstruction in public way or line of navigation), 121 (causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty) and 132 (assault to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita has been registered against Parambil and 699 others. 

With PTI input.