Kochi: The CPM politburo is understood to have intervened to defuse the fallout arising out of the police slapping UAPA against two students taken into custody in Kozhikode for possession of Maoist pamphlet with them.
The politburo has sent a strong message to the state unit of the CPM to prevail upon the government headed by Pinarayi Vijayan to initiate steps to withdraw the UAPA charges leveled against the two youths.
A person familiar with the development told this newspaper that a senior PB member has made it very clear that CPM is opposed to arresting people under UAPA for possession of Maoist literature. The central leadership of the party was disturbed by the developments in Kerala following the encounter killings of four Maoist activists near the Manchikkandy forest ranges in the state. On the encounter issue the central leadership is of the view that the magisterial probe should focus on whether the police have acted without provocation from
Maoists.
The message from the PB, understood have, prompted the CPM state secretariat to issue a statement on Sunday saying that CPM is against
slapping UAPA against the two youths arrested in Kozhikode.
Stating that the Chief Minister had already sought an explanation from police officials on imposing UAPA against the youths, the statement claimed that the LDF government had denied permission for police to invoke UAPA whenever cops tried to do so. It cannot be perceived that innocent persons will be slapped with UAPA during the LDF government, the secretariat said, and added that such a position is expected from the government in connection with the Kozhikode incident.
The secretariat also stated that the campaign against the LDF government on slapping UAPA against the two youths is a politically motivated exercise. END
