The Kerala Police on Sunday arrested two journalists who were covering a protest led by Dalits in Ernakulam district, The News Minute reported.

For the past year, people from Dalit communities have been protesting against the Nair Service Society – an organisation that works for the welfare of the Nair community – for stopping them from entering a public ground near a temple it runs. The organisation has erected a wall around the ground to keep Dalits out.

Early on Sunday, the police pulled down a tent that the protestors had set up and arrested seven demonstrators. They also took into custody Ananthu Rajagopal and Abhilash Padachery, two journalists who were recording the protests and the police action.

Officers confirmed to The News Minute that they had made the arrests.

Later, Rajagopal’s mother wrote on Facebook that the police had refused to let her meet her son. “We have been standing outside Ramamangalam Station since afternoon,” Asha Latha wrote. “The police are not even letting us, his mother and father, meet him.”