Trivandrum Press Club secy booked for assaulting woman

The Trivandrum Press Club secretary was booked on Tuesday for allegedly assaulting a journalist and her male friend for visiting her house late in the evening, police said.

The investigating officer told PTI that the woman journalist in a complaint said her male friend had visited her residence on November 30. She alleged that Press club secretary M Radhakrishnan later barged into her house with some people and also forcibly brought her friend there, questioning why he had visited her so late.

In the melee, he shoved her aside and assaulted the friend in front of her children, she alleged in the complaint.

The woman accused him of moral policing, the officer said.

Radhakrishnan, however, has denied all the allegations against him.

Based on the complaint, police have booked him on charges of wrongful confinement, house-trespass in order to commit an offence and voluntarily causing hurt.

The district committee of the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) has formed a five-member panel to probe the incident and decided to suspend Radhakrishnan's pending inquiry.

Meanwhile, the Indian Journalists Union (IJU) said it was "shocked to see the reports about the barbaric moral policing by a journalist who is also the secretary of Thiruvanathapuram Press Club against a woman journalist."

The IJU also said that the act was a "mere goondaism by a journalist thus a shame on the entire media fraternity".

"He along with his friends physically harassed the woman Journalist, caused trauma to her kids besides moral policing," the IJU said.

It also sought the removal of the secretary from the press club and initiation of legal action against him.