A magistrate court here on Tuesday turned down an appeal by the State government to withdraw criminal charges against six Left Democratic Front (LDF) leaders alleged to be responsible for the pandemonium that hindered the presentation of the Budget in the Legislative Assembly on March 13, 2015.
The court settled that “public interest” and “unity of the Legislature” were not sufficient grounds to arbitrarily set aside a case that involved the destruction of public property and unruly behaviour.
The decision is being widely seen as a setback to the government and the LDF leaders. The court appeared to have reckoned that the images of the protest, including the toppling of the Speaker’s chair and destruction of microphones and computers, remained stark in public memory.
The case
The high-profile case has its origin in the move by the LDF to obstruct the then Finance Minister K. M. Mani from presenting the Budget in the House. The LDF’s grouse was about Mani’s alleged criminal culpability in bar bribery case that rocked the Oommen Chandy government in 2015.
The police had registered a case based on a petition submitted by the then legislature secretary P.D. Sarangadharan. He reported a loss of ₹2 lakhs.
Subsequently, the police named E.P. Jayarajan, V. Sivankutty, C.K. Sadasivam, and Kunjahammed Master, all Communist Party of India (Marxist) members, K. Ajith of the CPI, and K.T. Jaleel, an LDF Independent, as accused in the case.
The police had transferred the case to the Crime Branch, and the inquiry dragged on at a plodding pace. In 2018, V. Sivankutty, former MLA, requested Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to withdraw the case. He said the Crime Branch had made little headway in the investigation.
Any further prosecution of the accused would tantamount to double jeopardy. The Speaker had punished the legislators by expelling them from the House temporarily. Moreover, the protest was a political act to highlight corruption. The accused had no criminal intent.
Oppn. stand
Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala and the Bharathiya Janata Party had intervened in the case, separately, and opposed the move to grant discharge to the LDF leaders.
Mr. Chennithala said he would pursue the case to its logical conclusion. BJP State president K. Surendran said the order was a strong rebuttal of the highhandedness of the State government.