At least two persons sustained minor injuries when the police lobbed teargas shells and fired pressurised jets of water from its tanker-mounted water cannon to disperse Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) activists, who turned violent near the Legislative Assembly gates on Monday.
The DYFI activists had taken out a vociferous march to the Assembly demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on the ground that he shielded the former Forest Minister Ganesh Kumar from facing criminal prosecution on the serious charges of domestic violence raised by his wife Yamini Thankachi.
The police had barred the way to the Assembly by placing barricades on the road. The DYFI activists turned over the barricades and attempted to push their way through the police cordon stationed behind the detachable iron fences. One activist snatched the synthetic baton and shield of a policeman. The police responded by lobbing grenades and drenching the protesters in pressurised water.
DYFI leader S.P. Deepak calmed the cadres. Later, DYFI leader T.V. Rajesh, MLA, expressed solidarity with Ms. Thankachi and accused Mr. Ganesh Kumar of brutalising her to prevent her from questioning his alleged promiscuous relationships.
He accused the Chief Minister of shielding the ‘errant UDF MLA’ to insulate his shaky government. He said the Mr. Chandy had ‘cheated’ Ms. Thankachi by assuring an amicable settlement to the issue and then subsequently allowing Mr. Ganesh Kumar to proceed against her criminally. He said women would get no justice under the current disposition. Few minutes later, nearly 50 Students Federation of India activists marched to the spot making the same demands.
In another incident, a set of persons suspected to be Ganesh Kumar supporters threw stones at the office of the Kerala Congress (B) here. The The Thampanoor police have registered a case of vandalism.
