NEW DELHI: Accusing Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan of hatching a conspiracy to hurt him after the SFI held black flag protests against him, Governor Arif Mohammed Khan on Tuesday said that police have been prevented from acting against these criminals, adding that he is not scared of anyone.
The remarks came after the activists of the Students Federation of India (SFI), a student wing of the Communist Party of India (CPI) held a black flag protest and allegedly hit his car in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday night.
#WATCH | Delhi: On SFI's black flag protest against him, Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan says, "…Police have been prevented from acting against these rowdies, criminals…This was the fifth incident…The rods on which they had the black flags, they were using those rods to… pic.twitter.com/nYOQIl91Ko
— ANI (@ANI) December 12, 2023
Addressing reporters in New Delhi, Governor Arif Mohammed Khan said, “Police have been prevented from acting against these rowdies, criminals. This was the fifth incident. The rods on which they had the black flags were used to hit the car. There are so many scratches on the car”.
“Everything is being done under his direction (Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan). It is he who has hatched this conspiracy. These people are working on the instructions of the Chief Minister. I do not try to scare anybody, there is no question I shall be scared of anything”, he added.
Reacting to the incident, Union Minister and BJP leader V Muraleedharan alleged that Kerala’s Chief Minister is acting against the Governor as he is taking a firm stand against the corruption and nepotism of the state government.
“Yesterday’s incident in Thiruvananthapuram where Kerala Governor was attacked depicts the level of law and order situation in the state. The fact that he was attacked thrice during his travel from Raj Bhavan to the airport, a distance of around 5 km these people were let loose by the ruling front and police were made ineffective to suit the interests of the people who were there to attack the Governor,” Union Minister added.
Meanwhile, police have taken 17 SFI workers into custody with seven workers being arrested for allegedly hitting the Governor’s vehicle. The case has been registered under multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code.
According to a statement from the SFI, “Governor has appointed senate members in Calicut and Kerala universities from the list of RSS violating the university rules. This is undemocratic. This is an attempt to tie campuses in the RSS shed. SFI was organising protest against this and we will continue it . Chancellor nominated members vialating all rules. Our decision is that SFI will not allow governor to enter in any campuses in Kerala. We will take up our protest in that manner. We will strengthen the protest against governor on streets. In our agenda we never aimed to physically attack the governor or take up the protest in bad manner. Our protest will be in democratic way. There won’t be any un democratic protest”. (ANI)