Kerala - Kochi   

Rights activists demand release of magazine editor

Kochi: Janakeeya Kuttayima, a common platform of human rights activists, has demanded withdrawal of the cases registered against P. Govindankutty, editor of People’s March, and demanded his immediate release.

Mr. Govindankutty was arrested on charges of publishing and distributing seditious materials. The police made the arrest in a raid following the arrest of a Maoist leader Malla Raja Reddy by the Andhra Pradesh police from Angamaly on December 17.

At a press conference, P.A. Pouran, convener of the organisation and president of the Peoples’ Union for Civil Liberty, and other activists alleged that the cases were foisted on Mr. Govindankutty. He said that Mr. Govindankutty started publishing the magazine after meeting all legal requirements.

As part of their agitations demanding his release, the human right activists would stage a satyagraha covering their mouths near the High Court on January 1.

They said that the magazine published articles against the “anti-people policies of the Central and State governments and against imperialist and capitalist forces”. Instead of withdrawing the anti-people policies, they were trying “to wreak vengeance on mediapersons and destroy the freedom of the press”.

The condition of Mr. Govindankutty, who is in jail for the last 10 days, had deteriorated. They demanded that Mr. Govindankutty be released and given back the books seized from the office of the magazine.

The action of the police in dubbing the unorganised migrant workers as Maoist terrorists and intimidating them was very reprehensible. They alleged that it was part of a clear move of the big construction contractors and quarry owners to employ workers at cheaper wages.

The government and the police should implement the Inter-state Migrant Workers Act strictly. The Act took care of the migrant workers, they pointed out.

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