Thiruvananthapuram: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that he would not re-examine the conspiracy charge slapped against a television journalist in connection with the hurling of shoes at the Nava Kerala bus in Kochi on December 10.
According to the police, the female journalist Vinitha V G of 24 News knew that KSU activists would hurl shoes at the bus. She was duty-bound to inform the incident before the security personnel, police added.
Vinitha was charged under section 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.
"There is no need for me to examine this case," the Chief Minister said at the press conference held in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday, the last day of the Nava Kerala Sadas. "My problem is I have no lack of faith in what the police had done. There are people among you who are capable of hatching a conspiracy. If such a thing has been done, a case will be registered," the Chief Minister said.
When asked how the police could consider a routine journalistic activity a conspiracy, the Chief Minister said that the police were merely doing their duty. "The police register a case based on evidence that comes before them. You (the media) speak on guesswork. You don't have any evidence. But if based on your guesswork, you feel the police have not done the right thing, feel free to take the necessary action," the Chief Minister said.
Journalists had more queries. How can such an act be construed as conspiracy? The media had prior information even when the SFI had taken out a march against the Governor.
Chief Minister: "Normal journalistic activity is not a conspiracy. The conspiracy angle emerges when journalism deviates from the normal path. Anyway, it is not for me to say. Police will have to give the details. If you have any proof that there was no conspiracy, you can produce them. There is no problem."
When journalists persisted with the conspiracy angle, the Chief Minister's tone changed. "Conspiracy is a conspiracy. Journalism should be done as journalism. No one will stand in the way of that. Now police have taken a case and they have said there is a conspiracy. You say it is not. Prove otherwise," he said.
It was then that the Chief Minister said he would not reconsider the police move to slap the conspiracy charge as he was convinced that journalists were capable of such intrigues.
Cases were also registered against journalists who had covered the Congress-police violence in front of the Secretariat on December 21.
The Chief Minister once again said that he had never encouraged violence. On the contrary, he said he had been exhorting people not to fall for provocations. "Even when they jumped before the bus at Kalliassery (Kannur), I had been telling people not to get trapped in such incitements," the Chief Minister said. It was in Kalliassery that Youth Congress workers waving black flags at the Nava Kerala bus had their heads battered by DYFI workers using flower pots and helmets. The CM had then called this a "life-saving act" and exhorted the cadre to persist with such "life-saving" measures.
However, on the last day of the Nava Kerala Sadas, the Chief Minister said he had been calling for restraint right through. "They (Congress) repeat hit, hit, hit. And I say control, control, control. I am saying this every day. But you people hide what I say," he said.
When he was told of the attack on the houses of Congress leaders, the Chief Minister spoke of the attack on a CPM worker's house in Alappuzha.
