Police trying their best to put Shiyas behind bars

KOCHI: Efforts by the police to put Ernakulam DCC President Muhammad Shiyas behind bars failed yesterday as well. The police made repeated attempts to arrest Shiyas as if trying to take revenge against him for shouting at the police and clashing with DySP AJ Thomas during the conflict in Kothamangalam.

The police registered four cases against Shiyas and arrested him once. Although the Kothamangalam First Class Judicial Magistrate court granted bail to Shiyas and the High Court barred his arrest, the police did not back down from their attempts to put him behind bars.

Shiyas, along with MLAs Mathew Kuzhalnadan and Eldhose Kunnappilly, led the UDF's protest in Kothamangalam town with the body of Indira, who was killed by a wild elephant. Muhammad Shiyas shouted at the police and pushed the DySP when the police tried to prevent the body from being taken from the morgue.

At 11.40 on Monday night, the police rounded up Shiyas and took him in a jeep from near the place where the MLAs were fasting. The police took him to the station after 'taking him on a city tour' for more than an hour. He was granted bail when he was produced at the magistrate's house at 2.30 am.

He was booked for obstructing traffic and disrespecting a dead body. After the court confirmed this bail yesterday morning, a large police team arrived at the court premises and attempted to arrest Shiyas in the case of attacking the police vehicle. He avoided arrest by running into the court.

Later, he approached the High Court for anticipatory bail through Mathew Kuzhalnadan. Justice CS Dias barred the police from arresting Shiyas till March 15. Following this, Mathew Kuzhalnadan brought Shiyas outside the court and challenged the police to arrest him. DySP responded by saying that he will be definitely taken into custody. Later, the police once again arrived to arrest Shiyas in the case of assaulting the DySP. Although the Kothamangalam court granted Shiyas bail in the evening, the police did not back down. Police have issued him a notice asking him to appear at Kothamangalam station today at 4 pm in the case of destruction of public property.