Police’s treatment against KSU leaders barbaric and unacceptable: KPCC chief Sunny Joseph

Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Sunny Joseph has strongly condemned the Wadakkancherry police for producing the arrested Kerala Students Union (KSU) leaders in court with black clothes covering their faces and their hands cuffed, calling it an act “unfit for a civilised society and utterly deplorable.”

Speaking to the media on Saturday after visiting KSU leaders Ganesh Attur, Al Ameen, and Aslam, who were currently in remand at the Viyyur Sub Jail, and KSU State president Aloshious Xavier and others held at the Erumapetty police station, Mr. Joseph said the police had acted as stooges of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)].

“Even the court questioned the inhuman and illegal behaviour of the Wadakkancherry police and issued a show-cause notice to the Station House Officer (SHO). The Home department must explain this breach of police norms,” Mr. Joseph said.

He said the illegal and vindictive use of the police force against political opponents was part of the Pinarayi government’s strategy, and Congress would challenge it both inside and outside the Assembly.

Mr. Joseph added that such continuous excesses by the police were “a disgrace to the democracy” and warned that the Congress would not allow the State government to weaponize the police for partisan ends.

Meanwhile, senior Congress leader M.M. Hassan urged the Communist Party of India (CPI) to join the Congress in resisting what he called “the Pinarayi government’s police terror.”

“Even the CPI delegates at their own State conference were treated with suspicion and subjected to metal detector checks. It shows that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan does not trust even his allies,” Mr. Hassan said.

He added that the CPI, which once stood for the slogan “govern and protest” during the EMS era, had now become submissive under Pinarayi’s rule.

“It is time for CPI leaders like Binoy Viswam to rethink. They should join the Congress in resisting the brutality, assaults, and repression happening across the State,” Mr. Hassan said.

He also called the act of producing the KSU leaders in the court in black masks a “gross human rights violation” and alleged that Wadakkancherry SHO Shajahan was acting as a “CPI(M) henchman.” He warned that the Congress would pursue legal action to ensure that officers like Mr. Shajahan face consequences, and said that those who assaulted Youth Congress leader V.S. Sujith in Kunnamkulam must be dismissed from service, not merely suspended.