Her explanation on Saturday followed the circulation of CCTV footage from a confrontation at the station in Pathanamthitta district on 11 July. The images have prompted questions about the conduct of Congress activists and the police response to an alleged attempt to attack the detainee.
Kunjamma said officers had informed her that YouTuber Rajan Joseph, accused in a complaint concerning defamatory social media material directed against her, had been arrested. She maintained that her presence at the station was part of the identification process rather than an attempt to confront or intimidate him.
She acknowledged entering the station and approaching the cell where Joseph was being held, but denied stepping inside the lock-up or issuing threats. She said she merely asked him whether he was well, describing the exchange as brief and denying any violent behaviour inside or outside the premises.
Kunjamma also maintained that she had complied with police instructions and completed only the procedures requested of her. Her account contrasts with allegations arising from the footage, which shows a group gathering around a police vehicle and subsequently entering the station.
The footage shows people obstructing the vehicle carrying Joseph and a confrontation as police attempt to move him to safety. Other sequences show Kunjamma approaching the lock-up and speaking to the detainee while officers remain nearby. The images have fuelled competing interpretations of whether the encounter involved intimidation and physical assault.
Youth Congress leader Fenny Nainan, whose presence at the station has also attracted scrutiny, rejected allegations of an assault. He maintained that the group had gone there after learning of Joseph’s arrest and had not physically attacked him.
The original complaint against Joseph concerned allegations that he had circulated defamatory content about Kunjamma on social media. Police had taken him into custody and brought him from Ernakulam to Adoor when the confrontation occurred. The allegations underlying his detention remain separate from questions surrounding the conduct of those who assembled at the station.
Police registered a case following the July incident against approximately 20 identifiable individuals. Kunjamma and Nainan were not named in the initial first information report, a detail that has become central to the dispute over whether investigators responded adequately to the confrontation.
The CCTV material, obtained through the Right to Information Act, has renewed scrutiny of that decision. It has also raised questions about why those allegedly involved were not identified in the police case despite the existence of recordings from the station premises.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) area secretary S Manoj accused police of failing to act against those responsible and demanded action against Kunjamma. He argued that the footage showed an attack on a person in custody and questioned the apparent inability of investigators to identify participants.
His allegations are disputed by Kunjamma, who criticised local CPI(M) leaders for defending Joseph despite the complaint concerning material she considered defamatory and insulting to women. She accused her political opponents of using the footage to target her rather than addressing the complaint that led to Joseph’s arrest.
Accounts of injuries sustained during the confrontation have also emerged, including allegations that police personnel were hurt. The footage has been described as showing officers trying to control the crowd and move Joseph inside the station, but the precise responsibility of individual participants remains contested.
(The article ‘Cong activists storm police station’ appeared first on Free Press Journal.)
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