The State police inspected at least two commercial establishments in Kannur purportedly to ferret out behind-the-scenes operators responsible for funding and coordinating the violence that marked the Popular Front of India (PFI) hartal last week.
The probe reportedly focused on whether the businesses had provided motorcycles, escape money and safe houses for the aggressors.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had pointedly noted that the violence seemed premeditated and carried out mainly by masked and helmeted persons moving fast on motorcycles. A top official said the inspections were solely related to the events in Kannur on the hartal day. It was not a State-wide crackdown.
He said the hartal violence had acquired a potentially more lethal edge in the Kannur district. An airport employee returning home after work had a narrow escape when a petrol bomb hurled by hartal supporters just missed him.
Anonymous persons targeted the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) office at Mattanoor with petrol bombs, causing heightened tensions. The police also arrested a PFI worker with two petrol bombs.
The official said the Kerala police were moving on a case-by-case basis to identify and prosecute individuals responsible for destroying public and private property. Blanketing protesters with UAPA charges that offered scant scope for bail was not legally justifiable.
The police headquarters had directed District Police Chiefs (DPC) to form teams to identify and arrest the accused. The DPCs would ensure the arrests were evidence-based to extract compensation for property destruction and secure conviction.
The police were investigating the persons who used online messaging groups to prompt cadres into unleashing violence on the hartal day.
They suspect leaders had used organisational online messaging groups or created new ones to direct the violence to bring life to a standstill. They had weaponised the NIA's arrest of PFI leaders to invigorate cadres to unleash aggression.
The police would also work with prosecutors to ensure that persons suspected of public property destruction post a sizeable bail amount backed by credible sureties to get bail. They have dropped further action against scores of PFI workers held under preventive detention.
