Four workers of the Youth Congress were arrested by Kerala Police in connection with alleged fake ID cards during the party’s recent organisational polls. All four KSU (Kerala Students Union) workers- Fenil Ninan, Binol Binu, Abhinandh Vikram and Vikas Krishnan- are from Pathanamthitta constituency.
The four accused are known to be close aides of Rahul Mankoottathil, who was recently elected as state youth congress president through online election. Police registered a complaint by BJP state president K Surendran and DYFI (Democratic Youth Federation of India) state president and A A Rahim on the fake ID card creation.
A special investigation team was formed to probe the matter. According to the remand report police have seized laptop and mobile phones from the accused. A total of 24 fake ID cards were seized, said Police. Expressing shock on the matter, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that such a thing being done for the first time.
“This is something that should not be done at any cost. What is the credibility of it, is such a thing being done for the first time, have these agencies carried out such activities before? These are things that should be investigated properly. That investigation has begun. What I am understanding is that all agencies have taken it seriously”, Vijayan said. The chief minister lashed out against the Congress and said that they could go to any extent against political rivals.
“Congress calls itself a democratic party and all but it’s just for namesake. There is no democracy. They have no elected system in general, it’s nominated committees that function for them. They conducted elections for the youth congress president post. Just imagine, it’s an internal party election which ideally should be healthy. In such elections, they are choosing such a route. So imagine to what extent they can go against political rivals. This is what should be seen,” Vijayan said. Youth Congress state president Rahul Mankoottom, however, claimed that the Youth Congress election was transparent.
“It’s good that BJP President K Surendran has come up with these allegations in the media. His allegations are pointless. He himself was involved in election malpractice,” Mankoottom said.
