On Saturday night, February 22, five activists of VIBGYOR film festival were picked up by police from the front of the festival venue and brutally beaten up inside the police vehicle and inside the police station.
Advocate R.K Asha who went to give them legal aid also was attacked by male police inside the station. She has a wound on her leg from the attack by the male police and she is bleeding. Asha"™s son and daughter who were accompanying their mother too were attacked and detained by the police. All of them are detained by the police at the time of this writing.
The activists detained in the Thrissur East police station are Neethu, Jithesh, Vivek, Nithin and Anurag, Advocate Asha and her son Gautham and daughter Gadha . All the women were verbally abused and harassed by the policemen.
On 14th of this month, Hindutwa hooligans with the collusion of the police had tried to prevent the screening of"Ocean of Tears" a film from Kashmir. VIBGYOR film collective stood together and drove back the lumpen elements from the venue.
The police simply stood and watched the spectacle and allowed the hooligans to go scot-free. Even though these hooligans destroyed the VIBGYOR festival office, no cases were registered against them.
A police man who had sided with the Hindutwa elements was involved in the present attack on the VIBGYOR activists. It must be suspected that the Hindutwa elements are settling their score with the help of the police force.