Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 11 (PTI) Senior Congress leaders on Saturday slammed the alleged police assault on party MP Shafi Parambil, terming it was an attempt to divert public attention from the alleged irregularities in the assets of the Lord Ayyappa shrine at Sabarimala.
AICC general secretary K C Venugopal, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly V D Satheesan and senior Congress leaders Ramesh Chennithala, Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, M K Raghavan and Mullappally Ramachandran also criticised the "brutal assault" on Parambil at Perambra in Kozhikode district on Friday.
Venugopal termed the action as an "escape tactic" of the CPI(M) to avoid the backlash from the Sabarimala issue.
Speaking to the media, he alleged, "What happened in Sabarimala was the biggest loot in Kerala".
Later in the evening, at a protest meet held at Perambra bus station where Parambil was allegedly assaulted, Venugopal contended that had the Kerala High Court not intervened, the Left government and the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) would have turned the Lord Ayyappa temple "completely into copper".
"The issue is being widely discussed everywhere and embarrassed by the situation, the CPI(M) workers lost their mental balance and decided to take out their frustration against their enemy -- Parambil," the MP from Alappuzha said.
A police officer should not lay his hands on a Member of Parliament, he added, while addressing the huge gathering at the venue.
According to a medical bulletin issued by the Baby Memorial Hospital at Kozhikode, Parambil suffered fractures on the right and left nasal bones and buckling of the nasal septum.
It also said that after undergoing a surgery, he was shifted to the ICU for post-operative observation.
"At present, the patient is hemodynamically stable, conscious and recovering satisfactorily under the supervision of our expert clinical care teams. As per medical advice, he will require adequate rest for recovery," the hospital said.
Satheesan alleged, in a Facebook post, that "criminals in CPI(M) and goondas in the police" assaulted the Congress MP deliberately.
"Such actions will not break the fighting spirit of the party and its leaders," he said, and added that it will not divert public attention from the Sabarimala issue.
Chennithala too spoke along similar lines and questioned why the police allowed rallies of two rival groups to pass through the same area.
The incident of Parambil's assault occurred after UDF and LDF rallies came face-to-face at Perambra bus stand on Friday.
The confrontation followed a hartal called by the Congress to protest Thursday's police action against its leaders and Kerala Students' Union (KSU) activists after violence erupted over the college union election at CKGM Government College, Perambra.
Chennithala asked how the police personnel failed to recognise that Parambil was an MP and why only one group was beaten up.
Radhakrishnan claimed it was a cruel assault on a people's representative with the intention to "kill him".
"It is police goondaism. We will not accept it," he said.
Similar accusations were made against the police by Raghavan and Ramachandran.
The Congress leaders demanded action against the police officers involved in the incident.
During the day, Congress and its youth wing held protests at various places across the state in connection with the assault on Parambil.
On the other hand, state General Education Minister V Sivankutty said being beaten up by police during protests was nothing new.
He said that in his over 40-year-long political career, he was beaten by police during protests several times and spent weeks in hospital for treatment. "All this is nothing new," he contended.
The minister also said that those involved in the alleged irregularities in Sabarimala will not escape from the law and they will all be punished.
Meanwhile, police on Saturday lodged a case against 700 people, including Parambil, for various offences -- rioting, assaulting officers, obstructing their duty and others -- in connection with the UDF rally at Perambra.
According to the police, the UDF workers and leaders on Friday night carried out a rally that obstructed the public way and when they were stopped, they attacked police personnel with stones to deter them from doing their duty.
A case under sections 189 (unlawful assembly), 191 (rioting), 285 (danger or obstruction in public way or line of navigation), 121 (causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty) and 132 (assault to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita has been registered against Parambil and 699 others.