Palakkad: The BJP road roko on the Palakkad-Coimbatore highway turned violent on Saturday when the protesters pelted stones at the police who lathicharged them. Palakkad municipal chairman Prameela Sasidharan and seven BJP workers were injured in the police action. The workers stoned the police as they had denied the use of mike to them. The protesters were later arrested and removed from the road. The one-and-a-half-hour road blockade was held demanding the arrest of the culprits involved in the death of a BJP local leader and his sister-in-law after their house was allegedly attacked by CPM men in December.
BJP general secretary M.T. Ramesh inaugurated the protest and alleged that the three CPM men arrested were not the persons who had set on fire the vehicles parked in front of the house of BJP leader Radhakrishnan at Puthussery near Kanjikode here. The LPG cylinder kept on the verandha had caught fire leading to a huge explosion. Both Radhakrishnan and his sister-in-law Vimala, a Mahila Morcha functionary, suffered burns and later died in the hospital.
