‘Wrongly propagating Arjun was drawing salary of Rs 75000’; Manaf exploiting emotions, say Arjun’s family

KOZHIKODE: The family of Arjun, who went missing in the landslide in Shirur and whose body was later recovered, has turned against the lorry owner Manaf. The family alleged that Manaf is propagating that Arjun was drawing a salary of Rs 75,000. The family expressed their gratitude to all those engaged in the rescue mission in Shirur. Arjun’s brother-in-law Jithin responded at the press meet convened in their house in Kozhikode.

‘Some people market emotionally. Now facing a cyber-attack. Some exploiting the family's emotions. This should not continue and if continued, will react strongly. Money is collected from many parts for the family without our consent. We don't need that money.

Arjun was not drawing a huge salary. We lost some days when Eshwar Malpe came for the rescue operations. The SP and MLA understood the matter and they discussed with us. Eshwar Malpe briefed about the search in his YouTube channel. That's when the police intervened. He was warned that the information obtained during the search should be reported to the police first.

Manaf also has a YouTube channel. He tried to increase views by showing the events in Shirur in his YouTube. If he has love for Arjun and his family, he shouldn’t have done this? It was a drama series conducted by Malpe and Manaf. We didn't want to get into more controversy by saying it then, but now they made us say this.

After everything, three to four videos were being posted on YouTube every day. All those videos affected the family. I texted Manaf to tell him this, but till now he has not replied. Arjun is being exploited for publicity.

‘Arjun went missing in the landslide that struck Shirur on July 16. Those days were emotional moments. Arjun got stuck in the landslide. The initial information we received was that the lorry was recovered. We reached the railway station to go to Shirur. In the beginning, there were lapses in the search operations. There were many problems later, dramatic scenes, conflicts etc. The search ended after it was confirmed that Arjun's lorry was in the river,' said Jithin.