Satheesan warns against police ‘witch-hunt’ after Perambra incident

Opposition leader VD Satheesan launched a scathing attack on the State government and police over the ongoing protests against Congress workers in Perambra following the attack on MP Shafi Parambil on Friday (October 17).

“SP himself admitted that the police attack on Shafi Parambil was unprovoked. But the police fabricated a fake case of explosion to blame Congress leaders and workers,” Mr. Satheesan told mediapersons in Thrissur.

He claimed that hundreds of police vehicles and personnel were deployed to raid homes at night and arrest innocent Congress workers “as if they were accused of murder.”

“Such police actions cannot be tolerated in democracies,” Mr. Satheesan said.

Turning his attention to the Sabarimala gold theft case, Mr. Satheesan alleged that the arrest of Unnikrishnan Potti was long overdue and many political leaders and Devaswom Board members were also complicit in the theft.

“The Supreme Court clearly observed that there was a deliberate attempt to cover up the incident. The former Devaswom Minister and the board officials knew what was going on. Potti did not act alone. They all worked together to protect her,” he alleged.

He stated that former Minister Kadakampally Surendran had publicly praised Potti as a “great Ayyappa devotee”.

“Potti was bought back so that they could continue their business dealings. The Board and the current Devaswom Minister tried to repeat the same scam. One fears that the next target could be Ayyappa’s golden idol itself,” Mr. Satheesan said.

On the reorganization of KPCC, Mr. Satheesan said the process was being carried out in consultation with the national leadership. “There is only concern that the list of secretaries has not been announced yet. I hope this list includes more young leaders and people who have fought for the party,” he said.

Taking a dig at the CPI(M), Mr. Satheesan said the Left party’s own State committee and secretariat “have more members than the KPCC list”.

“General Education Minister V. Sivankutty should count how many people are sitting in his own committees before criticizing us,” he joked.