The police on Friday arrested 18 more people in connection with the chanting of provocative slogans at a Popular Front of India (PFI) rally held in Alappuzha on May 21.
Alappuzha Deputy Superintendent of Police N.R. Jayaraj said they were arrested from different parts of the district. He said the names and other details of the accused would be released later.
Meanwhile, two PFI activists, who were arrested in connection with the case earlier, were sent to four-day police custody by a local court here on Friday. The police had arrested PFI Alappuzha district president Navas Vandanam and Ansar Najeeb, a PFI activist from Erattupetta in Kottayam on May 24 after a video featuring a boy sitting on the shoulder of a man and raising incendiary slogans at the PFI rally went viral.
Though the police traced the boy to Palluruthy within Kochi city police limits, the family has gone into hiding.
Speaking to reporters here, Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) State general secretary Roy Arakkal said the LDF government due to the fear of defeat in the Thrikkakara byelection was trying to create communal polarisation in the State.
Mr. Arakkal alleged the government had unleashed police against innocent people in the sloganeering case. While the police arrested and took several people into custody in connection with the boy's sloganeering, they failed to act against the Bajrang Dal leaders who sang provocative songs and slogans in Alappuzha on May 21.
He alleged that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had deliberately named SDPI instead of PFI as the organiser of the rally. “The SDPI has nothing to do with the programme held in Alappuzha. We will take legal action against him,” Mr. Arakkal said.
