Youth Congress State president Rahul Mamkootathil exited from the Central Prison, Poojappura, to a rousing welcome by party workers. Mr. Mamkootathil has been in judicial remand since January 9 after the Cantonment police arrested him from his house in Pathanamthitta in the early hours.
Flanked by Youth Congress national president B.V. Sreenivas and Congress legislators P.C. Vishnunadh and Shafi Parambil, Mr. Mamkootathil said the Youth Congress would not step back from its fight against the fascist government ruling the State over the threat of jail terms.
“I ask Pinarayi Vijayan, who rules as if he were the king of this land, to put down his crown. The people are watching,” he said.
A magistrate court remanded Mr. Mamkootathil in judicial custody until January 22 after government doctors certified him fit enough to endure incarceration. On Wednesday, the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court, Thiruvananthapuram, heard Mr. Mamkootathil and released him on bail after a lengthy hearing.
The court ordered Mr. Mamkootathil to post a bail bond valued at ₹25,000 and produce two financially solvent sureties as guarantors. It also ordered Mr. Mamkootathil to present himself before the investigating officer every Tuesday.
Mr. Mamkootathil’s dawn arrest had triggered belligerent street protests by indignant Youth Congress workers across Kerala. At several places, the protesters confronted the police, resulting in injuries on both sides. Streets turned into battle zones in a few district centres, with the police swinging batons and discharging truck-mounted water cannons to pacify the aggressive anti-government protests.
The police had booked Mr. Mamkootathil in four cases concerning a series of Youth Congress protests in the capital. The charges against Mr. Mamkootathil and scores of other Youth Congress workers included injuring uniformed officers, preventing them from discharging their duty, destruction of public property and unlawful assembly and rioting.
The police action against Youth Congress demonstrators who waved black flags at Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s motorcade during the Cabinet’s progress across the State to conduct town hall meetings with the public had sparked a season of opposition protests across Kerala since November 18.
The government came under Opposition criticism for unleashing the police and CPI(M) activists to strong-arm Youth Congress protestors. It prompted Congress legislators and MPs to march to the Police Headquarters, demanding that the government stop subverting law enforcement to stifle dissent.
