The police registered cases against 75 identifiable workers of Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Bharatiya Janata Party in connection with incidents of clashes over the Ganesh idol procession at Chala, under the Edakkad police station limits here, on Sunday.
Several people, including two police officers, had been injured in the clashes and stone-throwing that broke out at Chala and nearby areas on Sunday evening. The CPI(M) local committee office there had also been vandalised by suspected BJP workers who had participated in the procession. The party’s flagpoles and hoardings were destroyed. The area witnessed tension on Sunday night as workers of both parties assembled in the area.
The police said that no untoward incident took place in the area on Monday. The CPI(M) held a protest demonstration at Chala on Monday evening. Civil Police Officer Sujeesh and Sub-inspector Mahesh Kandambeth had suffered injuries in the clashes.
The CPI(M) district secretariat, in a statement, condemned what it called the unilateral attack by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). It said the Sangh Parivar deliberately instigated violence using the Ganesh festival as a pretext to flout the decisions taken at peace meetings.
The processions had been organised to instil religious fanaticism and anti-CPI(M) sentiments among believers. The CPI(M)’s local offices, flagpoles, hoardings, and banners had been vandalised as a provocation planned by the Sangh Parivar, the statement said.
