Cheating in name of CM: Seven 'DYFI activists' held

KOCHI: Seven DYFI workers were held by the police yesterday for allegedly cheating an Ernakulam native woman out of lakhs of rupees in the name of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

The arrested persons include Ernakulam Karukapally native Siddique, Faisal, Niyaz, Kamaluddhin, Joshi, Vincent and Ajayan.  
Police arrested the accused on Tuesday night based on a complaint given by one Santhra Thomas, directly to the chief minister. But the arrest is yet to be registered. They are being questioned in detail at Ernakulum Central Station.

The CM’s office had given strong direction to the DGP to arrest the persons, soon after the CM received the complaint. The seven member gang was arrested by a special police team led by North CI.

The accused who were brought to Palarivattom station were questioned for hours yesterday itself in the presence of superior officers.

According to the police, the complainant had borrowed Rs 50 lakh from Thrissur native Joshy for buying some land. She was not able to return the money. After that Joshy and his gang started harassing the woman for money, saying that they were close relatives of the chief minister.

Joshy is said to have claimed that he is Karukappally Masjeed DYFI unit secretary.

Police also added that most of the persons in the custody were accused in Kubera cases.

Meanwhile, DYFI said that the arrested persons had no connections with the DYFI.