THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: For the first time the Kerala Congress leadership has ensured that the expenses towards the legal proceedings including bond towards the bail for those arrested KSU and Youth Congress activists are met.
Earlier, the activists or Congress party members had to pay for their expenses.
Meanwhile, several Left youth leaders belonging to the SFI and DYFI easily secured bail while the KSU and Youth Congress activists who were arrested struggled to get bail.
It was after K Sudhakaran came to the helm of the party in June 2021 that he constituted the KPCC legal aid committee in all 14 districts.
He had been inundated with complaints from youth leaders then as not all the District Congress Committees could afford to provide funds running to several crores towards legal expenses and completing the release formalities from the prisons which included destroying public properties during the agitations.
This time more than 500 youth activists across the state were arrested with some of them being charged with non-bailable offences that led them to become remand prisoners, following the protests towards Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s NavaKerala Sadas.
A party source told TNIE that usually after the youth organizations protest, the Police request them to provide a list of activists who will surrender.
“The YC leadership did not heed to this police request which saw scores of hapless activists languishing in various prisons, the maximum in Thiruvananthapuram," said a youth leader.
NS Nusoor, former YC vice president recalled to TNIE that there have been numerous occasions when he and Dean Kuriakose, the incumbent Idukki MP and former YC president, were released from prison on numerous occasions following the intervention of then Chief Minister Oommen Chandy.
“He would arrange funds for our release which ranged from Rs 25, 000 to Rs 3 lakhs. Usually, the police don’t go to the youth leader's home to arrest them even if non-bailable offences are charged against them. But now ever since Sudhakaran took the initiative to form the legal aid committees, the remanded youth leaders don’t have to fret about funds towards their release," said Nusoor.
V S Chandrasekharan, chairman of KPCC legal aid committee told TNIE that last year the party had paid Rs 27 lakhs as fine before the adalat in a single sitting at the court in Thiruvananthapuram.
“The prosecution ensures that SFI and YC activists get away with bail. The KSU and YC activists cut a sorry figure and when they are produced before the magistrate court, they are denied bail and sent to remand custody," said Chandrasekharan.