Cong MLA Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan carries tear gas shell inside Kerala House
Thiruvananthapuram: An unusual scene unfolded at the Kerala Legislative Assembly on Wednesday when former Home Minister and Congress MLA Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan came to the House with a used tear gas shell.
Showing it to the Speaker of the House, the Congress MLA said the grenades used to disburse Youth Congress protesters last week were beyond its expiry date, and that the police is still using them.
"This is police raj. Even the tear gas shells used by police to disperse youth protesters are beyond expiry dates," said the Congress MLA.
During the discussions about home department Thiruvanchoor said that Police Raj is still prevailing in the state.
"The police force in the state has been using grenades which expired and this will create huge health problems," he added.
This created huge uproar in the Assembly as Left Democratic Front (LDF) legislators said that members were not supposed to bring fire arms inside the House.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan too intervened. He said that it would have had been a huge security threat if it was a live grenade. Thiruvanchoor later handed over the grenade to Assembly officials.
Speaker P Sree Ramakrishnnan assured LDF legislators that he will look into the issue and see if Thiruvanchoor has breached the code of conduct inside the Assembly.
On February 26, police fired tear gas shells after protesters who had gathered outside the Kerala secretariat hurled stones and bottles at the security personnels. They were protesting the murder of Youth Congress worker Shuhaib.
The Youth Congress protest intensified hours after there was chaos in the Assembly after the chief minister turned down the Congress demand for a CBI probe into the killing. The state police are impartial, the CM had said.
30-year-old Shuhaib was killed on February 12. First, a country-made bomb was hurled at him, after which his body was slashed several times with sharp weapons. Six people have been arrested for the murder. Police say most of them are pro-CPM activists.
