Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), Thiruvananthapuram, R. Jayakrishnan on Wednesday ordered the 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, to deposit ₹35,000 each as part of the legal requirement for their bail.
The then legislators alleged to be responsible for the destruction of public property in the House are E.P. Jayarajan, V. Sivankutty, C.K. Sadasivan, K. Kunhammed, all Communist Party of India (Marxist) members, K. Ajith of the CPI and K.T. Jaleel, an LDF independent.
The police case was that they had destroyed microphones, computers, grappled with the watch and ward and toppled the chair of the Speaker to deter the then Finance Minister K.M. Mani from delivering the Budget speech.
The LDF's grouse was about Mani's alleged criminal culpability in a bar bribery case that rocked the Oommen Chandy government in 2015.
The CJM had in September turned down a plea by the government to withdraw the case against the leaders. He had ruled 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 CJM reportedly saw no merit in the State's argument that 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, the government had argued.
The then Legislature Secretary P.D. Sarangadharan had reported a loss of ₹2 lakh to public property. In the event the court finds the accused guilty, it could forfeit the bail amount from the accused to recompense the loss to public property.