Six people have been arrested for harassing a priest and then setting fire to his motorcycle in Kerala’s Thalassery archdiocese, Kerala.

Six Communist Party of India (Marxist-CPM) activists were arrested on charges of abusing the vicar of Arabi St. Joseph’s parish, Fr. Abraham Puthussery, burning the motorcycle on December 2,

Fr Puthussery was returning to the church in his car after dropping some nuns in a convent when the CPM activists apparently blocked his path and abused him when he asked them why they were trying to deny him freedom to move about.

Later that night, he found his motorcycle, parked in front of the church, on fire.