Congress leader questioned for sharing photo of Kerala CM with Sabarimala gold case accused

Kozhikode (Kerala), Dec 29 (PTI) Congress leader N Subramanian was questioned by police here on Monday in connection with the alleged sharing of a photograph on social media depicting Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan with Unnikrishnan Potty, an accused in the Sabarimala gold case.

Police had earlier courted controversy after Subramanian, a member of the Congress state unit’s Political Affairs Committee, was taken into custody on Saturday. Following protests, he was released after being issued a notice to appear for questioning.

Speaking to reporters, Subramanian said he and the person managing his social media accounts were questioned by Chevayoor police for over an hour at the station earlier in the day.

He reiterated that he had not posted any AI-generated photograph of the chief minister with Unnikrishnan Potty.

According to him, the image he shared was taken from a video of the CM that is available from the state government’s Public Relations Department.

"They should release the video. Otherwise, I will file an application under the RTI Act with the PRD to obtain it," he said.

Subramanian claimed that the same photograph he had shared continues to be available on the social media accounts of others and that no cases have been registered against them.

"Through such actions, the state government should not think it can conceal the Sabarimala gold theft case," he alleged.

Responding to queries on why he deleted one of the three images he had posted, Subramanian said he did not like that particular photograph.

"There is nothing unusual about deleting one picture. I did not like it. The others were not deleted because I felt they looked better," he said.

He added that the person managing his social media accounts had explained the source of the images to the police.

"There is no AI tool on his mobile phone. Then how can the police claim the images are AI-generated? The pictures were taken from another post, and the sources were explained to the police," Subramanian said.

Meanwhile, Chevayoor police have registered a case on their own against Subramanian under Section 192 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, relating to wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause a riot, and Section 120(o) of the Kerala Police Act for causing annoyance through communication. PTI TBA SSK