Kerala Police conduct search operations at TV channel Asianet's office 

Kerala Police conducted a search operation in the offices of the Asianet news channel in Kozhikode after a group of Students' Federation of India (SFI) activists allegedly trespassed into the office of Malayalam news channel and intimidated the staff over a news report telecast about the sexual assault of a girl, reported NDTV.

While sharing a video on Twitter, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar criticised the Pinarayi Vijayan government by saying, "So  @pinarayivijayan facing serious corruption charges n questns from media thinks he can wriggle out n distract ppl by intimidatng media using his SFI hoodlums n thn his Police 😂🤷🏻‍♂️ #Joker."

On Friday, a case was registered against around 30 activists of the SFI, the student wing of the ruling CPI(M) in Kerala, on the basis of a complaint lodged by the TV channel. 

According to the complaint, the SFI activists allegedly entered the office around 8 pm on Friday by raising slogans against the news channel after pushing aside the security staff and intimidating its employees, the police said.

There was a complaint against the news channel for allegedly creating fake news using a minor girl about the alleged sexual assault of over 10 girl students at a school in northern Kerala. Sources in the SFI Ernakulam District Committee sought to justify the action by claiming that the student outfit organised the march to the Kochi office of the media house in protest against fake news run by it, PTI quoted CPI(M) sources as saying.  

The news channel had run the story as part of its programme last year on the drug menace in the state. Police said the activists have been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting) and 149 (forming an illegal assembly for the prosecution of a common object of murder).

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