Two Austrian women who were booked for allegedly destroying pro-Palestine boards and banners were produced in a court in Mattancherry, which granted them bail on Thursday.
The Fort Kochi police had booked them under Section 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot) of the Indian Penal Code on a petition filed by the Students Islamic Organisation of India (SIO). The two tourists had been staying at a homestay in Fort Kochi and though they were allowed to return to the homestay after the case was registered, they were under police surveillance till being produced in court.
The case was registered after SIO activists thronged the Fort Kochi police station demanding the registration of a first information report (FIR) against them on Tuesday night. However, the police did not comply with the SIO’s demand that a case be registered under IPC Section 425 (Whoever with intent to cause, or knowing that he is likely to cause, wrongful loss or damage to the public or to any person, causes the destruction of any property, or any such change in any property or in the situation thereof as destroys or diminishes its value or utility, or affects it injuriously, commits mischief).
Unsatisfied, the SIO lodged a fresh complaint with the District Police Chief (Kochi City) and the Fort Kochi Station House Officer on Thursday demanding to invoke more serious charges including under IPC Sections 427 and 118 of the Kerala Police Act. “The accused should be stopped from fleeing the country, and it should be verified whether they were involved in criminal conspiracy,” the petition said.
One of the women allegedly ransacked a couple of pro-Palestine boards and a banner mounted at Kamalakkadavu near Fort Kochi beach. The other woman allegedly filmed it. A video of the woman holding the torn poster having an argument with youngsters had been circulating on social media since Tuesday afternoon.
