Kerala - Kochi   

Police give clean chit to Ministers

Kochi: A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court was told on Wednesday that Food and Civil Supplies Minister C. Divakaran and Revenue Minister K.P. Rajendran had not interfered or forced the police to release two councillors of the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation from police custody.

A statement filed by the Assistant Commissioner of Police (Fort), Thiruvananthapuram city, on behalf of the State government, said the allegation that the Ministers had forced the release of the two was baseless.

The statement was filed in response to a quo warranto writ petition seeking to drop the Ministers from the Cabinet on the ground that they had violated the oath of office by forcibly releasing the two women councillors from police custody. The petition was filed by Paulachan Puthuppara.

The statement said that 16 men arrested in connection with a violence incident on November 20 were remanded to judicial custody. The violence took place when a march taken out by the All India Youth Federation (AIYF) in the city turned violent. Rakhi Ravi Kumar and Shaila Navas, two women activists, were released on bail as the former was pregnant.

The statement said there was no threat of sit-in at the police station. It was true that the march had turned violent and there was assault on police personnel including women police constables. Cases had been registered under appropriate sections of the law.

The allegation that no case had been registered in connection with the incidents was false. The Bench of Chief Justice H.L. Dattu and Justice K.M. Joseph adjourned to next week the hearing on the petition, the statement said.

The Bench directed the State government to file a statement in response to a writ petition challenging the memorandum of understanding (MoU) entered into between Kerala Minerals & Metals Limited (KMML) and Rosoboron Exports, a Russian company, for setting up a titanium sponge plant at KMML.

The petition, filed by Shibu Baby John, sought to prohibit the State government and the company from going ahead with the MoU. It would facilitate future access to the richest atomic mineral deposits available in the mining leaseholds of the State-owned company.

The Russian company was one of the largest arm dealers in the world and had no experience in the field, the petitioner said.

Acting on another petition, the Bench directed the State government to file a counter-affidavit in response to a plea for constituting a special squad or high-power committee to oversee the implementation of the Kerala Captive Elephants (Management and Maintenance) Rules.

The petition, seeking strict implementation of the rules, was filed by V. Sreekumar of Thiruvalla.

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