190 cases against Dean for violence during flash strike

KOCHI: Youth Congress state president Dean Kuriakose has been made an accused in around 190 cases registered in relation with the call for illegal flash hartal on February 18 to protest the murder of two Congress activists at Kasaragod, police have informed the high court.


Police have also told the court that BJP leaders K P Sasikala, P S Sreedharan Pillai, K Surendran, M T Ramesh, A N Radhakrishnan, P K Krishnadas, and O Rajagopal as well as SKS leaders K S Radhakrishnan and T P Senkumar have been named as accused for the violence that occurred during the hartal called on January 3 to protest entry of women to Sabarimala temple.

A total of 193 cases were registered in connection with the hartal on February 18 and Dean Kuriakose has been named as accused in almost all the cases, except cases of preventive detention, an affidavit filed by police through senior government pleader P Narayanan said. Police also produced details of the number of cases registered in each police district during the hartal on February 18. As per the affidavit filed to the court, two cases were registered in Thiruvananthapuram city, seven in Thiruvananthapuram rural, three in Kollam city, six in Kollam rural, two in Pathanamthitta district, 14 in Alappuzha district, eight in Kottayam district, nine in Idukki district, 10 in Kochi city, 19 in Ernakulam Rural, six in Thrissur city, eight in Thrissur rural, 31 in Palakkad district, 17 in Malappuram district, 11 in Kozhikode City, seven in Kozhikode Rural, three in Kannur district, seven in Wayanad district , and 23 in Kasaragod district , the court was told.

A separate affidavit filed by police said Sabarimala Karma Samithi office bearers called for a hartal on January 3 at a press conference conducted at the office of Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) at Pavakkulam in Ernakulam and Hindu Aikya Vedi and BJP state leaders publicly declared their organizations' support for the hartal.

A total of 13 leaders of Hindu Aikya Vedi, BJP, RSS, and Sabarimala Karma Samithi (SKS) have been named as accused in the cases registered regarding the violence that occurred during the hartal on January 3, police's affidavit said. Leaders including BJP's V Muraleedharan, SKS's Govindh Bharathan, S J R Kumar, and RSS pranth sangh chalak P E B Menon have also been made accused in the cases, the court was told.