K.M. Shajahan taken into custody

The Ernakulam Police on Thursday evening took YouTuber K.M. Shajahan into custody for allegedly carrying out a defamatory campaign against CPI(M) leader K.J. Shine through his online channel. He was picked up from his home at Akkulam in the capital late in the evening. Later, he was taken to Ernakulam, where his arrest is expected to be recorded. Mr. Shajahan, former private secretary of the late former Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan, was on Wednesday interrogated over a case filed by Ms.Shine, in which he is the second accused. He was let off after an interrogation, which lasted for a few hours at the cybercrime police station, Ernakulam Rural, Aluva. However, he had allegedly posted yet another video targeting her on Wednesday, leading her to lodge another complaint.

C.K. Gopalakrishnan, a Congress worker, another accused in the case, had moved a local court seeking anticipatory bail after the police searched his house and seized a mobile phone on September 22. The police have not traced the third accused in the case, Yaser from Edappal, who allegedly runs a Facebook page named ‘Kondotty Abu’.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the case has so far issued multiple communications to the Meta authorities seeking IP addresses of the alleged slanderous social media posts against Ms. Shine, who contested as the Left Democratic Front (LDF) candidate from the Ernakulam Lok Sabha constituency in the 2024 general elections.