Thiruvananthapuram Press Club Secretary M Radhakrishan was, on Thursday, 5 December, arrested for allegedly moral policing and assaulting a woman journalist and her male friend recently, the police said, according to PTI.
Radhakrishnan was taken into custody from the club building in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday evening.
The arrest was made after a group of women journalists protested at the club, Thursday morning onwards, demanding his ouster from the secretary post and his arrest based on the complaint of the woman journalist.
The Network of Women in Media (NWMI), India, also lodged a complaint with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and the Kerala Women's Commission demanding stern action against him.
‘I Tried to Protect the Woman Journalist & Her Family’
However, rejecting the charges, Radhakrishnan, after the arrest, claimed that he had actually tried to protect the woman journalist and her family.
The Press Club secretary was booked on Tuesday for allegedly assaulting the journalist and her male friend for visiting her house late in the evening, the police said.
According to the police, the woman journalist, in a complaint, said her male friend had visited her residence on 30 November.
She alleged that Radhakrishnan, who also works in the same organisation, had barged into her house with some people and also forcibly brought her friend there, questioning why he had visited her so late.
In the melee, he shoved her aside and assaulted the friend in front of her children, she alleged and accused him of moral policing.
Based on the complaint, the police booked him on charges of wrongful confinement, house-trespass in order to commit offence and voluntarily causing hurt.
The Kerala Women's Commission also on its own registered a case against Radhakrishnan and some others.
The protesting journalists said that they will end the protests only if he is removed from the post of the Press Club Secretary, according to The News Minute.
The journalists have also raised objections against the current Internal Committee of the Thiruvananthapuram Press Club, which was allegedly constituted without the knowledge of its members.
(With inputs from PTI and The News Minute.)
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