Case against Asianet news reporter: CPI(M) defends Kerala Police action

Case against Asianet News Reporter: CPI(M) State Secretary MV Govindan justified the action of Kerala police taken against Akhila Nandakumar for reporting on Maharaja's college mark list controversy. He said that if anti-SFI campaigns are carried out, the government will continue to act legally.

Kochi: CPI(M) State Secretary MV Govindan has defended filing a case against Asianet News reporter Akhila Nandakumar and others who reported the allegations raised by the Kerala Students' Union (KSU) live on the channel. 

Kerala police booked a case against Maharaja's College, Ernakulam former coordinator Vinod Kumar, college principal VS Joy, KSU state president Aloysius Xavier, Fazil CA and Asianet News Chief reporter Akhila Nandakumar after SFI state secretary PM Arsho's complaint alleging conspiracy.
MV Govindan said, "The cases will be continued to be filed if the anti-SFI campaign is carried out."

Blaming the media as a whole, the CPM state secretary said that the state government's move against the media persons should not be compared with the Centre's media hounding. 

Speaking to reporters, Govindan said, " If any wrongdoing is found as part of the investigation, whoever it is should be booked. All those who participated in the conspiracy should be dealt with as part of the case. The report from Asianet News is a component of the conspiracy as well. All those involved in the plot must be exposed. You can't get out of the case in the name of the media or a media person."

V S Joy Dr d Vinod Kumar is the first two accused. Aloysius Xavier and KSU Maharaja's Unit President CA Faisal are the third and fourth accused. Akhila Nandakumar is the fifth accused in the conspiracy case.

The case has been registered under sections 120-B, 465,469 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code  (IPC) and 120 (o) of the Kerala Police (KP) Act 2011 including criminal conspiracy, forgery and defamation.

Akhila and her cameraman had reached the Maharaja's College campus on the June 6 to seek details in the forgery case of former SFI leader Vidya. Vidya is on the run ever since she was accused of forging documents to secure a guest lecturer position in the government college.

Akhila spoke live to the principal and the Malayalam section teacher on the 11 am news and sought details. The reporter also asked the student representatives present in the principal's room for their response regarding Vidya's forgery. 

Then, one of the student representatives raised Arsho's mark list controversy, saying that another issue was more important than this.

With this, the SFI state secretary's mark list controversy along with the forgery case came to the fore. Arsho interpreted this incident as a conspiracy against him and approached the police. It was on this complaint that the Kochi Central Police registered a case against Asianet News chief reporter Akhila Nandakumar.