Assembly ruckus case: Accused file revision petition before Kerala HC

KOCHI: The accused in the 2015 Assembly ruckus case, including General Education Minister V Sivankutty, on Monday filed a revision petition before the Kerala High Court against the dismissal of their discharge petition by a lower court in Thiruvananthapuram.

The court admitted the petition, filed by Sivankutty, MLA K T Jaleel, former minister, E P Jayarajan, K Ajith, C K Sadasivan and K Kunhammed, all opposition MLAs then.

Justice K Haripal issued notice to the state government and sought its response in the matter.

''It is most respectfully submitted that the petitioners are totally innocent of the allegations raised in the case and the findings in the final report are not supported by any legal evidence and are groundless in toto and even if those groundless allegations/findings are accepted at its face value, none of the offences is made out against the petitioners,'' the petition filed by the Left party leaders said.

The petition said none of the then MLAs have filed any complaint regarding the incident and the investigation was done by a CBCID DySP, based on a letter of Legislative secretary.

The petition claimed that the report of the investigation was ''highly tainted and biased'' to project a totally ''distorted version of incidents'' which happened in the Kerala Legislative Assembly in 2015.

On October 13, in a setback to Kerala's ruling LDF, Thiruvananthapuram Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), dismissed the discharge petitions filed by the accused in the case, saying the material produced before it by the prosecution disclose a grave suspicion that the accused have committed the offences.

Dismissing the petitions, the CJM also directed the minister and five other accused to appear before it on November 22 to frame charges.

In its order, the court had said that the statement of the witnesses recorded by police, DVDs and other documents before the court disclose that there are sufficient circumstances against the accused to frame a charge against accused 1 to 6.

The trial court in September 2020 had rejected the LDF government's plea to withdraw a case related to the ruckus in the state assembly, saying allowing it would send a wrong message to society.

The petition was filed by the government, seeking withdrawal of the case registered under sections 447 (criminal trespass), 427 (mischief causing damage), read with section 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Sec 3(1) of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property (PDPP) Act by the previous Oommen Chandy-led UDF government.

Subsequently on July 28, the Supreme Court dismissed the Kerala government's plea for withdrawal of the case against the six LDF leaders, saying privileges and immunities ''are not gateways'' to claim exemptions from criminal law which governs the action of every citizen.

The apex court had also said that committing acts of destruction of public property cannot be equated with either freedom of speech in the legislature or with forms of protest legitimately available to the members of the Opposition.

The assembly had witnessed unprecedented scenes on March 13, 2015 as the LDF members, then in the opposition, tried to prevent Finance Minister K M Mani, who was facing charges in the bar bribery scam, from presenting the state budget.

Besides flinging the Speaker's chair from the podium, electronic equipment like computers, keyboards and mikes on the desk of the presiding officer were also allegedly damaged by the then LDF members, causing a loss of Rs 2.20 lakh.