Vijayan 'abused' Rahul by arresting his staff: Congress

Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 20

Leader of Opposition in Kerala Assembly and Congress veteran V.D. Satheesan on Saturday slammed Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for directing to arrest the staff of Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi and three other "innocent" Congress workers.

Satheesan said this while interacting with the mediapersons after arriving at Wayanad after hearing that four Congress workers were arrested by the police on Friday.

"Vijayan is in a crisis as no arrests have been made in the attack of their state party headquarters in June. Likewise, days ago, one Shahjahan was murdered in Palakkad and here too, he is in a quandary... to cover up all this, he directed the police to arrest the innocent Congress workers," said Satheesan.

On June 24, SFI protesters alleging that Gandhi, who is a Wayanad MP, failed to act on the issue of 'buffer zone' of eco-sensitive areas, shouted slogans against him and damaged his office in Wayanad.

A picture of Mahatma Gandhi was found broken and confusion arose when the SFI protesters claimed they did not destroy it, and allegations made rounds that it was the work of the Congress workers.

The police launched a probe and four Congress workers were arrested on Friday.

"Not long ago, Union Minister Smriti Irani was in Wayanad and since the BJP here is weak, Vijayan in order to please the national BJP leadership is doing everything to abuse Gandhi. We will not take this lying down and we will be forced to act," warned Satheesan, adding no police official here will act against the wishes of Vijayan.

"We challenge Vijayan to release the CCTV visuals and then the truth will come out," said Satheesan.

The Congress party will be raising this issue in the floor of the assembly during its 10 day session starting from Monday.