Six arrested in Kerala for portraying Prime Minister Narendra Modi as ‘Negative Face’.

published on June 12, 2014

Six persons, including four students and collage staffs of a government polytechnic in Kerala, have been arrested on the charge of defaming Prime Minister Narendra Modi by featuring his photograph in their college magazine under a list of “negative faces” along with Adolf Hitler, Osama bin Laden and a few others.
Those arrested yesterday night included lecturer and staff editor Gopi and magazine designer Rajeev.The college principal M N Krishnan Kutty, who was among the seven persons booked on June 10, was not arrested as he was ill, police said.All of them were later released on bail. The case was registered against them for offences under the Indian Penal Code, including concealing design to commit offence, wantonly giving provocation, punishment for defamation and printing matter known to be defamatory.

Earlier Yuva Morcha State Vice President K K Aneeshkumar have filed a complaint against the defaming act and police took action when sangparivar organizations have intensified the protest against inaction of police.  

Police had yesterday raided the polytechnic college at Kunnamkulam in Thrissur and seized 392 copies of the magazine, a computer and hard discs.

Meanwhile, five students, closely associated with printing and publishing of the magazine, all of whom are activists of the student union controlled by CPIM student outfit SFI, have been suspended pending an inquiry, college officials said.

The campus magazine for 2013-14 was released recently. The magazine, edited by Principal MA Krishnan Kutty and Professor PK Gopi has portrayed Narendra Modi, a democratically elected Prime Minister, whose party came to power with sweeping majority, as a ‘negative face’. The magazine has stoked widespread controversy by placing Modi’s photograph along with sandalwood smuggler Veerappan, Liberation of Tamil Tigers Eelam supremo V Prabhakaran, Adolf Hitler, Al Qaeda chief Laden and George W Bush, police said.