Professor's palm-chopping case: NIA arrests absconding PFI activist

Manzoor was the lone absconding accused in the palm-chopping case  He was arrested and produced before the NIA court in Kochi on Saturday Activists of the PFI had chopped off the right palm of professor TJ Joseph in July 2010

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested a 47-year-old activist of a radical Muslim group on Saturday for his alleged involvement in chopping off the hand of a college professor seven years ago.

According to the NIA, Manzoor was the lone absconding accused in the case. He was produced before the NIA court in Kochi.

Activists of the Popular Front of India (PFI) had chopped off the right palm of professor TJ Joseph in July 2010, when he was returning along with his family members from the Sunday mass near his home in Muvattupuzha.

The case was transferred to the NIA, which arrested those behind the crime. In 2015, the NIA court found 13 guilty and acquitted 18 others.

PFI, a radical Muslim group, was upset after Joseph - a Malayalam teacher at Newman College, Thodupuzha - in the Malayalam question paper that he had prepared for an internal examination had made inflammatory remarks on Prophet Mohammed. The PFI chopped off his right palm in retaliation.