P.V. Anvar arrested after day-long standoff over tribal youth’s death in elephant attack

Independent MLA P.V. Anvar arrested for alleged involvement in attack on forest office after tribal youth's death.

P.V. Anvar, Independent MLA representing the Nilambur constituency who recently broke away from the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF), was arrested on Sunday (January 5, 2025) night following his alleged involvement in an attack on the Divisional Forest Office (North) at Nilambur during the day.

A large posse of police personnel led by Deputy Superintendent of Police Balakrishnan reached Mr. Anvar’s house at Othai, near Edavanna, after 8 p.m. After an hour of uncertainties, Mr. Anvar came out of his house and gave himself up to the police.

Minutes before the arrest, Mr. Anvar told the media that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was unleashing a rule of terror by using the police. “I was here. I would have surrendered if the police had served a notice. There was no need for the police to create this drama at night by surrounding my house and effecting an arrest like this,” he said.

Mr. Anvar said he was oppressed for speaking for the farmers of the Christian community who lived in the forest fringes. “Pinarayi became my enemy when I exposed the excesses of the police. He is a tyrant worse than Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he said.

He said he was surrendering because he was an MLA. “I will show what I can do if I come back alive,” he told the media as the police completed the arrest formalities.

Mr. Anvar was among the 11 members of the Democratic Movement of Kerala (DMK) against whom the police filed a case after they vandalised the DFO office at Nilambur on Sunday (January 5, 2025) during a protest against the police and the forest authorities following the death of a tribal youth from Mancheeri in an elephant attack.

They were booked for obstructing the duty of the police and destroying public property.