Police in Kerala’s Ernakulam have dropped from the FIR the name of a journalist who had been controversially booked for alleged defamation and conspiracy to tarnish the reputation of a student leader.

The crime branch that investigated the case in which Asianet News reporter Akhila Nandakumar was the fifth accused in the FIR filed based on the complaint of SFI state secretary P.M. Arsho has informed the magistrate’s court in Ernakulam that it couldn’t find any evidence against the reporter.

“The police have filed a report in the court dropping my name from the list of
accused,” Akhila told The Telegraph on Tuesday.

The reporter was booked along with four others in June over a news item she broadcast from the Maharaja’s College campus on June 6 about the name of Arsho figuring in the list of students who have cleared the third semester of MA archaeology although he didn’t write the exams.

She was booked in spite of clearly attributing the source to allegations raised by the Congress campus wing, the Kerala Students’ Union. The college had termed the appearance of Arsho’s name as a technical error.

Akhila was listed as the fifth accused after archaeology department coordinator Vinod Kumar, college principal V.S. Joy, KSU state president Aloshious Xavier and the union’s college unit leader Fazil CA.

They were booked under IPC Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 465 (forgery) and 469 (forgery on purpose of harming reputation) and Sections 500 (defamation) and 120 (o) of the Kerala Police Act (causing, through any means of communication, a nuisance of himself to any person by repeated or undesirable or anonymous call, letter, writing, message, email or through a messenger).

The state government had assured Kerala High Court that no coercive action would be taken against Akhila.

The case against Akhila had sparked an uproar in the state where the Left government was already facing allegations of targeting journalists.

The channel’s editor, Vinu V. John, was earlier summoned by the police for questioning in a case against a statement he made during a panel discussion he helmed. During the discussion he had criticised the LDF for causing inconvenience to the public by forcing a statewide shutdown in March 2022.

The police in Kollam had questioned Jayachandran Elankath, a special correspondent with the Malayala Manorama daily, over his report on alleged backdoor appointments at a state public sector company.