THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a curious development, a court in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday ordered CPM leader and former Alappuzha MLA P P Chitharanjan and two others to stay in the court until it dispersed for the day as punishment for unlawful assembly and obstruction of traffic during a protest march in 2025.
The Thiruvananthapuram Judicial First Class Magistrate Court V sentenced him to “stay in court till the rising of the court” after he pleaded guilty of the offences charged against him. Magistrate Tania Mary Jose handed over the nominal punishment along with a fine of `1,600.
Chitharanjan and two other co-accused, P M Waheeda and N K Ramachandran, were handed down the punishment by lunch and they spent around three hours in the courtroom to comply with the order. The incident related to the case happened on January 17.
Chitharanjan had inaugurated the protest march organised by the Kerala Co-operative Employees Union (CITU) from Palayam to the Secretariat. The march was organised seeking better wages and job protection for co-operative hospital employees.
Chitharanjan said he had inaugurated the march and since his name was published in the programme notice, he was booked. “The sentencing came around 1pm. We were allowed to proceed for lunch. Upon returning, we sat on the court bench till the court called it a day,” he told TNIE.