EP Jayarajan booked for attempt to murder, conspiracy

The action comes two days after IndiGo slapped travel bans on Jayarajan, Majeed and Kumar.
LDF convenor EP Jayarajan
LDF convenor EP Jayarajan

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The police on Wednesday registered an FIR against LDF convener EP Jayarajan and two others for allegedly manhandling two Youth Congress workers who raised slogans against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan inside a flight on June 13.

The Valiyathura police charged Jayarajan and CM’s personal staff members S Anil Kumar and Suneesh V M with attempt to murder and criminal conspiracy, following an order issued by the Thiruvananthapuram Judicial First Class Magistrate Court. The court order came on the petition filed by YC workers Farzeen Majeed and R K Naveen Kumar, who were themselves charged with attempt to murder in an earlier case registered in the incident. Shankhumukham ACP D K Prithviraj said the police team will take further action and summon Jayarajan and the others if needed.

“We had recorded Jayarajan’s statement earlier in the case against the complainants (YC workers). We may summon him if needed,” Prithviraj said. The action comes two days after IndiGo slapped travel bans on Jayarajan, Majeed and Kumar.

In their petition before the magistrate court, the YC workers accused Jayarajan, Anil and Suneesh of physically assaulting, verbally abusing and threatening to kill them. The workers said they had raised slogans “Youth Congress Zindabad” and “prathishedham, prathishedham” (protest, protest) only after the doors of the Kannur-Thiruvananthapuram flight were opened upon landing at the capital.

Reacting to the court order earlier in the day, Jayarajan said it was only a legal procedure. “It is natural any court would order an investigation when a complaint comes before it. It’s only a court procedure and not a setback to my stand in the controversy. It is the media that interprets the order as setback,” he said, adding that he will cooperate with the police for “any investigation or interrogation.”

LDF govt a disgrace to democracy: Sudhakaran

State Congress president K Sudhakaran had welcomed the court order and termed it a blow to the police’s prohibitive stand under the missive of the CM and the CPM leadership’s partisan attitude.“We moved court as the police played politics. The CM has become the protector of attackers. The LDF government is a disgrace to democracy. The CM has no right to continue in office as home minister as he protected a political criminal inside and outside the assembly,” he said.

On the court order, CPM central committee member A K Balan said the case won’t stand legal scrutiny. “It is only a technical decision of the court. It is the investigator’s duty to find out whether the allegations are true or false,” Balan said.

SABARINADHAN APPEARS BEFORE PROBE OFFICER
A day after he was arrested for conspiracy to murder and granted conditional bail over the ruckus in the flight, former MLA K S Sabarinadhan appeared before the investigating officer on Wednesday as per his bail condition. He came to the station around 10am. He has to appear before investigators on Thursday and Friday too. Sabarinadhan was granted bail on Tuesday after Thiruvananthapuram Principal Sessions Judge P V Balakrishnan found that his custodial interrogation was not required in the case as reports did not reveal any conspiracy as alleged.

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