Thiruvananthapuram/Kannur: A Kerala court on Wednesday directed the police to lodge an FIR on the complaint moved by two Youth Congress workers accusing LDF convener E P Jayarajan and two others of allegedly assaulting them when they shouted slogans against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan onboard an aircraft after it landed here.
One of the lawyers representing the two Youth Congress (YC) workers confirmed that the court of Judicial First Class Magistrate in Thiruvananthapuram directed the Valiyathura police station to register an FIR. Reacting to the court order, the LDF convener told reporters in Kannur that he was not worried about the directive and it was also not a setback for him or the Left front government.
Jayarajan said that whenever someone moves a complaint before a magisterial court, it has to order the police to look into it and he will cooperate with the investigation. That is what has happened in the instant case and that is how the court's order should be viewed, he said and added that it was the media which was calling the order as a setback.
Jayarajan said that soon there will be a case by CPI(M)'s youth wing DYFI in the court claiming that KPCC chief K Sudhakaran and Leader of Opposition in the state assembly V D Satheesan were also behind the conspiracy to protest against the CM inside the aircraft. The CPI(M) leader said he is not apprehensive regarding the court order as he has not committed any wrong.
Also read: Congress leader Sabarinadhan arrested in Kerala flight protest case
"Why should we be afraid when we have not done any wrong? We always try to do the right thing. That is our endeavour always. So for us, it does not matter which court said what," the LDF convener said. The state government and the Chief Minister have taken the stand that no wrong was done by Jayarajan which warrants lodging of a case.
Vijayan had also said in the assembly that Jayarajan was in fact protecting the CM from an attack by the YC workers and therefore, there was no need for any legal action against the LDF convener. The two YC workers -- Farzeen Majid and R K Naveen Kumar -- in their plea have sought registration of an FIR against Jayarajan, the CM's personal security officer Anil Kumar and his personal assistant Suneesh V M for allegedly assaulting them in the aircraft when they shouted slogans against Vijayan in connection with a gold smuggling case.
Following the incident last month, the two protesters and another YC member were booked for attempt to murder by the Kerala police. In that case, the FIR said due to political enmity, the three accused -- Majid, Naveen Kumar and Suneeth Kumar -- conspired to kill the Chief Minister and boarded the flight from Kannur to Thiruvananthapuram.
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The case was registered against three YC workers under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 120B (conspiracy), 307 (attempt to murder) and 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), the police had said. Majid told PTI that they too had made a complaint against Jayarajan and the two others, but they decided to approach the court as no action was taken by the police.
On Tuesday, the issue took a dramatic turn with the police arresting Congress leader K S Sabarinadhan for allegedly hatching the conspiracy behind the aircraft protest. However, the same day, a Kerala court granted him bail. On Monday, private airliner Indigo, onboard whose aircraft the incident had occurred, had imposed a three-week flying ban on Jayarajan and a two-week ban on Majid and Naveen Kumar.
Irked by the ban, the LDF convener said neither he nor his family would ever travel by that airline. On the very next day, an IndiGo bus, operating in the Karipur airport, was fined by the state Motor Vehicle Department (MVD) for defaulting on payment of road taxes. (PTI)
