The Hindu : Kerala News : Congress defends call for review of court ruling

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Kerala

Kerala

Congress defends call for review of court ruling

Staff Reporter

`Kodiyeri's charge politically motivated'

KANNUR: Congress leaders here on Monday dismissed as baseless the CPI(M) leader, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan's allegation that the District Government Pleader's recommendation for reviewing the Additional District and Sessions Court's ruling in the case against the CPI(M) candidate in Koothuparamba, P. Jayarajan, was politically motivated.

The Congress leaders, K. Sudhakaran, Sunny Joseph and K. P. Nooruddin, told a press conference here that the first judgment in the case by the Koothuparamba court sentencing Mr. Jayarajan to 29 months' imprisonment had come in 1997 in connection with a case registered under various sections. The Additional District and Sessions Court reduced in 2001 the period of sentence into one year ordering that the accused undergo the sentences under various sections concurrently.

They said that the latter judgment did not say anything to support this ruling. The Public Prosecutor at that time was a CPI(M) sympathiser and, therefore, he had not revealed all details that would allow the Government to review the ruling, they said.

Reacting to the delay in taking a decision to file the review petition, they said the authority to condone the delay was vested with the court.

Mr. Jayarajan's candidature for the Koothuparamba byelection itself was a challenge to the Supreme Court that had disqualified him, they said.

The Congress leaders also took exception to Mr. Balakrishnan's statement reportedly accusing the Government of disproportionate deployment of police in the two constituencies to create anarchy on the polling day. Since it was the Government's responsibility to ensure free and fair polling, why the LDF was afraid of police presence in the constituencies, they asked. They also demanded that all the sensitive booths in the constituencies should be marked for taking law and order arrangements for holding free and fair election.

Mr. Balakrishnan's statement that the UDF candidate in the Koothuparamba constituency was an accused in the Chathirur forest land encroachment case was false. Mr. Prabhakaran had not been an accused in the case. The Congress would initiate legal action against Mr. Balakrishnan for the `slander' against the candidate, they said.

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