Kerala Indian Youth Congress vice-president K.S. Sabarinathan was on Tuesday arrested on the charge of masterminding the in-flight protest by two of his colleagues against chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, but was granted bail by a court that rejected the police’s appeal for three-day custody.

The Opposition Congress alleged a “high-level conspiracy” by the police and accused the Left government of “acting with vengeance”.

Sabarinathan was called to Valiyathura police station in capital Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday morning after a WhatsApp chat went viral purporting to show the leader asking party workers to wave black flags at Vijayan in the flight on June 13.

A former MLA and son of late Congress leader G. Karthikeyan, Sabarinathan was arrested minutes after he appeared before the police.

The arrest time was recorded as 10.50am, according to the police.

Later in the day, a district court in Thiruvananthapuram allowed conditional bail to Sabarinathan and ordered him to appear before the police for questioning for three days from Wednesday. The prosecution had sought police custody for three days citing evidence including the WhatsApp screenshot.

The screenshot from a Youth Congress WhatsApp group purportedly showed Sabarinathan urging party workers to board the flight in which chief minister Vijayan was to fly from Kannur to Thiruvananthapuram and wave black flags.

“The CM is coming on the Kannur-Thiruvananthapuram flight. If two persons board the aircraft and wave black flags… anyway they can’t be removed from a flight,” the message attributed to Sabarinathan read.

The Congress has been arguing that nowhere in the message had Sabarinathan called for attacking the chief minister and had only explored the possibility of a protest. But the party has not explained how chats from a closed WhatsApp group of just over 100 members got leaked to the media.

Two of three Youth Congress members who had boarded the IndiGo flight on June 13 had raised slogans demanding the chief minister’s resignation before being pushed down by LDF convener E.P. Jayarajan who prevented them from getting close to Vijayan. They were banned by the airline for two weeks, and Jayarajan for three weeks.

HeHe has been booked, among other charges, for attempt to murder. under IPC Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter a public servant from carrying out his duty) and 307 (attempt to murder), besides provisions of the Aircraft (Investigation of Accidents and Incidents) Rules, 2012, Aircraft Act, 1934, and the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against Safety of Civil Aviation Act, 1982. The in-flight protesters had also been slapped with the same sections.

Two of the three Youth Congress workers who had boarded the IndiGo flight from the chief minister’s native Kannur had shouted slogans soon after the aircraft came to a halt after landing in Thiruvananthapuram. Farzeen Majeed and Naveen Kumar, both Youth Congress leaders from Kannur, stood up, walked towards Vijayan and shouted: “Protest, protest… the chief minister should resign.”

The protest was apparently over a prime accused in a gold smuggling case naming Vijayan and his family members as beneficiaries of the alleged racket.

In a video clip purportedly filmed by their accomplice Sunith Narayanan, Farzeen and Naveen were seen shouting slogans before LDF convener and Vijayan’s confidant Jayarajan blocked the aisle and pushed them down.

Farzeen and Naveen were immediately detained by the airline’s ground staff and handed over to the airport security before they were arrested by the local police. Sunith, who walked out of the airport with other passengers, has since secured anticipatory bail.

The leader of the Opposition, V.D. Satheesan of the Congress, slammed the LDF government for such drastic action against Sabarinathan. “The government is acting with vengeance, while no action has been taken against Jayarajan,” he alleged.

“Sabarinathan was arrested following a conspiracy at the highest level of the government. He has been charged with attempt to murder. He will be protected politically and legally,” Satheesan told reporters.

Youth Congress workers held protest marches in several districts against the arrest of Sabarinathan, while state unit president and Palakkad MLA Shafi Parambil told reporters that they would wave black flags wherever the chief minister goes from Wednesday.

While the police did not book Jayarajan, IndiGo on Monday barred him for three weeks from flying the airline. Farzeen and Naveen, who are out on bail, were barred for two weeks.

An IndiGo bus operating at Karipur airport in Kozhikode was fined by the Kerala Motor Vehicles Department on Tuesday for defaulting on payment of road taxes, officials said here on Tuesday, adds PTI.

They said the MVD intercepted the bus at nearby Feroke. A senior officer said the bus was booked and fined for tax arrears during routine checking.

He said the vehicle had not been seized. “It is parked in the workshop and will be released once the tax dues plus a penalty of Rs 7,500 is remitted,” an officer said.

“It is a vehicle that operates inside Calicut (Karipur) airport and seldom comes out. We have no jurisdiction in the airport premises and hence we check all vehicles that operate inside restricted areas like airports when they come out. This was one such and part of normal checking routine,” the officer said.

The fine comes a day after the ban on Jayarajan became public.

IndiGo is yet to react to the development.

Irked by the ban on him in the plane protest case, Jayarajan has said neither he nor his family will ever travel on IndiGo.