Thiruvananthapuram: The BJP's day-long protest near the police headquarters on Tues-day not only caused severe hardships to the commuters, but also exposed the double standards being maintained by the police.
On April 5 last year, the police had forcibly prevented a delegation comprising the parents of deceased engineering student Jishnu Prannoy from staging a sit-in near the place maintaining that no demonstrations could be allowed near the police headquarters as it was a high security area.
However, when the BJP on Tuesday staged a day-long sit-in near the spot, the police re-mained mute spectators on the ground that the stir was about 200 metres from the DGP’s office.
"No demonstrations are allowed near here. Hence the BJP was permitted to stage the protest only 200 metres from the area," said a senior officer of the city police.
A delegation of hardly a dozen people comprising Jishnu's parents Ashokan and Mahija had proceeded to the police headquarters to call on the state police chief to press for an effective probe into their son's death. A police party blocked them near Trivandr-um Club. Jishnu's parents said that they would stage a sit-in at the spot. But police had forcibly removed them.
The BJP and UDF also observed a hartal the next day in protest against the police action.
