THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Six LDF MLAs, including CPM state secretariat members E. P. Jayarajan, have been arraigned in the case pertaining to the bedlam in the state assembly during the budget presentation on March 13. The crime branch action is expected to trigger protests in the assembly session beginning on Monday.
V. Sivankutty, C. K. Sadasivan and Kujahammed Master of the CPM, K. Ajith of CPI and LDF independent candidate K. T. Jaleel were the others arraigned.
They were accused of causing damage worth Rs 2 lakh to the Assembly and hence section of Prevention of Damage to Public Property was invoked, apart from IPC sections 34 for criminal act done with common intention and criminal tresspass. The crime branch filed a report at the magistrate court last month.
“We have received legal opinion that since it was a criminal activity that took place inside the Assembly, the MLAs would not get any privilege protection and hence they have been arraigned,” a senior crime branch official told DC. The crime branch had also consulted the legislature secretariat before arraigning the MLAs in the case.
On the basis of a complaint filed by the legislature secretary on the unruly incidents in the house on March 13, the local police had earlier registered a case. The probe was later handed over to the crime branch, which gave a report arraigning the six MLAs.
Meanwhile, crime branch sources said that though the petition filed by women MLAs of the LDF including Jameela Prakasam and K. K. Lathika, alleging assault by UDF MLAs in the house was referred to them, they could not take up the investigation along with the petition of ruckus against the LDF MLAs as both incidents were of different in nature.
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