Defamatory post: Congress leader released from police custody

The Chevayur police on Saturday released senior Congress leader and Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) Political Affairs committee member N. Subrahmanian, who was taken into custody in connection with a case registered against him for sharing an AI-generated photograph depicting Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan along with Sabarimala gold theft suspect Unnikrishnan Potti. Mr. Subrahmanian, who was kept in police custody a few hours after medical check-upfor interrogation, was allowed to go after recording his statement on the incident. He was also served notice to turn up for interrogation again on December 29. The Congress leader alleged that the police came up with the “surprising action” based on the instruction from an unknown senior police officer. He claimed that the Left Democratic Front (LDF) was showing its intolerance in different forms following the huge setback it faced in the recent local body elections across the State. Expressing protest against the police action, a group of Congress workers came in support of Mr. Sbubrahmanian and camped in front of the Chevayur police station. They also sang a ‘controversial’ song alleging that the police were acting in favour of the LDF government. KPCC’s reaction In a statement issued here on Saturday, KPCC president Sunny Joseph said the police action against the senior Congress leader was challenging the democratic rights of citizens and meant to hamper their fundamental right to expression. He also claimed that the Sabarimala gold theft and related developments were very much haunting the Pinarayi Vijayan government. Speaking to reporters at his office in North Paravur on Saturday, Leader of the Opposition V. D. Satheesan accused Mr. Vijayan of increasingly behaving like an autocrat and becoming a disgrace to the State. Mr. Satheesan said the Chief Minister cannot intimidate Congress and UDF leaders into submission through what he described as autocratic acts. “We will ask all our leaders to post the picture showing the Chief Minister with Potti. Let him arrest all of us,” he declared. The First Information Report related to the defamatory Facebook post was registered on Friday based on a complaint that the content was intended to provoke conflict and promote enmity between different groups. Accordingly, Mr. Subramanian had been booked under Sections 192 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Section 120 of the Kerala Police Act. Published - December 27, 2025 06:47 pm IST

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