Kerala Police raid Asianet News office in Kozhikode, stirring up criticism

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Police on Sunday carried out raid at Asianet News' Kozhikode office following a complaint filed by Left independent MLA P.V. Anvar.

Only days ago a group of Students' Federation of India (SFI) activists barged into the Asianet News' Kochi bureau.

The CPI(M) has been targeting the Asianet News ever since the Pinarayi Vijayan government came to power for the second consecutive time.

The popular news channel of the state has been relentlessly exposing the failures of the government of the day.

The channel has exposed the nexus between the state government and Swapna Suresh, the accused in the infamous gold smuggling racket.

Chairman of Asianet News, Rajesh Kalra while speaking to IANS said, "Kerala Police are currently raiding Asianet news office in Kozhikode in a fabricated case. This follows the SFI's disruptive activity at our Kochi office the other day."

He said that attempting to browbeat the Asianet would fail and that the news group would take legal action against this.

Rajesh Kalra also said that there were earlier attempts to silence the media in Kerala and that those in power were trying to repeat that but it won't succeed in such tactics against the media.

Asianet is the first private news channel of Kerala and enjoys a high reputation in providing impartial news to the people of the state.

It has exposed several corrupt practices in the state and has brought several human interest stories of the tribes and marginalised to the mainstream.

After SFI students stormed into Asianet News in Kochi, a case was registered against them on the basis of a complaint lodged by the TV channel.

IANS with superficial edits