Thiruvananthapuram, Keralam Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala on Friday rejected allegations of police high-handedness during the recent raid at the office of a private Malayalam news channel, saying the search was conducted in accordance with the legal procedures.
“What happened at that TV office was a search related to the fraud case. RBC is the second accused in the case. An FIR was registered at the Kalamassery police station and searches were conducted simultaneously at five locations after obtaining search warrants from the court, Chennithala pointed out. “There was no high-handedness by the police during the raid. Not a single journalist was assaulted or treated badly. The police asked them to keep their phones aside during the search, but returned them immediately.
He said received daily intelligence inputs on the probe, but clarified that the government had not instructed the police to arrest or not arrest any particular person. That’s why the police carried out the search there,” he said. The channel’s broadcast was not disrupted even for a minute,” he said. Chennithala said if there was any lapse on the part of the police, he would examine it for sure and all the actions were subject to judicial scrutiny. The searches, conducted at five locations in Kochi and Wayanad, including the office of RBC, the residences of its promoters, the Augustine brothers, and their ancestral home in Wayanad, were carried out on the basis of court-issued warrants, police said.
“An SIT comprising senior officials under the ADGP has been given complete freedom by the government to conduct the investigation,” Chennithala said at a press conference here.
