THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The five lawyers involved in last week’s brutal attack on journalists, including Prabhat Nair, Principal Correspondent, The New Indian Express, within and outside the courtroom of the Special Vigilance Judge here, were on Tuesday arrested by the Vanchiyoor Police.  Those taken into custody were Thiruvananthapuram Bar Association secretary Anayara Shaji, R Rethin, Arun P Nair, Subhash and L R Rahul.  However, all of them were granted station bail soon after the arrest since the cases charged against them were weak and bailable.  According to police, the arrests were made on the basis of the complaints lodged by the two woman journalists– C P Ajitha  and Justeena Thomas– who had been present inside the courtroom on the fateful day and were showered with abuse and threats by the irate lawyers.
The police had registered three separate cases based on the complaints lodged by Prabhat Nair, Ajitha and Justeena. In the FIR,  Rethin and Arun P Nair have been named as  accused in all the three cases. Earlier, the five accused came to the police station on Tuesday evening along with their personal sureties.
The police had invoked Sections 143, 146 and 149 of IPC pertaining to unlawful assembly, IPC Section 294(b) pertaining to use of obscene words, IPC 341 pertaining to wrongful restrainment and IPC 350 pertaining to using criminal force against the accused in the case relating to the attack on Prabhat Nair and Sections 506 pertaining to criminal intimidation, 294 (b) of IPC and 119(a) of KP Act that pertains to sexual gestures or acts degrading the dignity of women in public place. All the offences under these Sections are bailable.