Madras High Court quashes criminal cases against CPI, CPM leaders

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Tuesday quashed the criminal cases pending before a lower court against K Balakrishnan and R Mutharasan, general secretaries of the Tamil Nadu unit of the CPI(M) and CPI respectively and two others.

Justice N Satishkumar quashed the proceedings pending before the XIV Metropolitan Magistrate in Egmore, after holding that staging a protest against the general price rise could never be construed as an undemocratic act and that the cases had no merit.

The charge against the accused was that they had staged the agitation near Tarapore Towers on Anna Salai on September 10, 2018 to register their protest against the steep hike in the prices of petrol and diesel without prior permission and that they had prevented the police personnel from discharging their public duty.

When the Magistrate court issued summons to the accused, requiring them to appear before him on June 7, they moved the High Court with the present criminal original petitions to stay/quash the proceedings.