CK Vineeth files police complaint against Kerala Blasters’ fan group Manjappada

CK Vineeth filed a complaint against Kerala Blasters’ fan group. (Source: ISL)

Chennaiyin FC striker CK Vineeth has filed a police complaint against former club Kerala Blasters’ fan group Manjappada over an alleged cyber attack following the clash between the two teams on Friday in the Indian Super League.

Vineeth, who was loaned out to Chennaiyin FC by Kerala Blasters, reportedly lodged the official complaint with the Ernakulam Assistant Comissioner of Police PS Suresh after he received a WhatsApp voice clip painting a bad picture of him. When the ball went out of play for a throw-in during the first half of the clash in Kochi, Vineeth was heard in the clip shouting angrily at the ball boy. The ACP summoned two people, Bichu and Prabhu, to his office on Tuesday.

“The kid was watching the ball. He didn’t hear me the first time due to all the noise so I called him again, with more volume on my sound. I did not say anything else and was not warned by the match commissioner. False allegations are being made against me whether is it by Manjappada or anyone else. I am fed up, I think I need to react,” the Kerala-born striker told Asianet News.

Calling it an attack on Malyali players, Vineeth further said, “As far as I know, the message has come from the executive group of Manjappada in Ernakulam. It could be to create a bad image of me. If you look at it carefully, it is not just against me, it is against all the Malayali players. Anas Edathodika has spoken about it, Rino (Anto) and (Mohammed) Rafi have spoken about it.”

“They are the number one fans based on numbers. When you think of them as supporters, I don’t think they are number one,” he added.

Meanwhile, Manjappada, in an interview to Goal.com, said that they were shocked to hear these statements by Vineeth. “Manjappada has around 100 Whatsapp groups. Someone from one of these groups, who sat in the VIP gallery, described an incident that he saw in the game through a voice clip. It was forwarded a lot and the voice clip started by the person addressing a person named Prabhu. Prabhu is not the one speaking, Prabhu is the one being spoken to by this person,” Manjappada’s Ernakulam core committee member Muhammed Sadhik said.

“Vineeth specifically mentioned Manjappada. Not everyone who comes to the stadium is part of ‘Manjappada’. Not everyone’s opinion is our opinion. Vineeth could have said that certain Kerala Blasters fans turned on him but he named Manjappada. To give an interview to a news channel and accuse Manjappada due to a voice clip by a random fan is shocking,” he added.