For a moment, Paul (name changed), a young driver, wondered whether he had bought a pair of new footwear or something more potent.
After all, why else would the police ‘seize’ it, he was left puzzled. The drama unfolded at Karuvattekkurissu in Mulanthuruthy just before the Navakerala Sadas bus carrying the State Cabinet led by the Chief Minister was to pass through the area on its way to the session in the Piravom Assembly Constituency on Monday evening.
He and a friend were on their way back after buying the footwear when they decided to have a brief stopover at a shed where INTUC workers used to assemble. “Since the bus was about to pass through the area, we decided to sit there and watch it out of curiosity. A few INTUC workers were also there at that time. Then a police team arrived. They asked the workers whether they had any plan to stage any protest, and they replied in the negative,” Paul said.
It was at that moment that the police team noticed Paul and his friend. They were asked what they were doing there. The police then noticed the cover held by him and were somewhat alarmed to find the footwear inside.
Probably, the police were reminded of the protests at Odakkali near Kothamangalam last month when four Kerala Students Union activists hurled a couple of shoes at the Navakerala Sadas bus and a security vehicle that was part of the cavalcade. The incident had triggered a lot of controversy and brought the police considerable stick from a magistrate court in Perumbavoor for slapping the activists with the non-bailable charge of attempt to culpable homicide. The court threw out the charges and released the activists on bail.
Taking no chances, the police said they would keep the footwear till the Navakerala Sadas bus passed the area. “I tried to explain that I have no such intention to throw away my new footwear. But they withheld it nevertheless and returned it shortly after the bus passed,” Paul said.
He, however, had no clue police personnel from which station had temporarily ‘seized’ his footwear. He also did not want him to be named for fear that it may land him in trouble.
