The Assembly witnessed unruly scenes during the debate on demand for grants for police and jails on Wednesday when a member of the Opposition and former Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan dramatically produced what he said was a date-expired grenade, which he said had been hurled by the police recently in front of the Secretariat to disperse protesting youths.
During the debate, Mr. Radhakrishnan unleashed a scathing attack against the police, which he said, were being used by the government to wage an open war against those whom the ruling party did not like. He said the police were using even date-expired arms to disperse protesting youths.
As the ruling benches rose in protest, Mr. Radhakrishnan produced the date-expired “grenade”, which led to much commotion in the House with all ruling MLAs up in arms.
S. Sarma raised a point of order that Mr. Radhakrishnan had violated the rules and proceedings of the House by walking into the House with firearms and that the Speaker should examine the issue.
As the commotion continued, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that if Mr. Radhakrishnan had indeed brought a real grenade into the House, it was a dangerous and serious issue and that he should hand it over to the Speaker.
Unfazed, Mr. Radhakrishnan said that anyone walking by the Secretariat can procure this “grenade” but that what was to be noted was that it was a date-expired firearm. He demanded to know if the Chief Minister would take action against the police for using date-expired firearms.
He willingly handed over the “grenade” to the Speaker but insisted that he be given a receipt for the same.
Later, the Chief Minister, during his reply said that the non-lethal ammunition used had a shelf life of several years and that it was not a date-expired ammunition as had been alleged.
