HC initiates suo motu proceedings against PLI leaders
Team News Riveting
Kochi, September 23
A large-scale violence and incidents of arson were reported from various parts of Kerala during the early hours of the state-wide hartal called by the Popular Front of India (PFI) on Friday.
The dawn-to-dusk hartal was called by the PFI to protest against the National Investigating Agency (NIA) raids in the offices and residences of its leaders and their subsequent arrests on Thursday for allegedly supporting terror activities in the country.
Reports reaching from different parts of Kerala said stones were pelted at Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) buses in various districts including Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kozhikode, Wayanad, and Alappuzha. Two police officials were injured after two hartal supporters rammed into them in a speeding motorcyclein Pallimukku area of Kollam district. A KSRTC bus driver sustained an injury in his eye after a PFI worker smashed the windscreen of the bus in Kozhikode district.
The worst came from Kannur where an unidentified person on a motorcycle attacked a media vehicle with a petrol bomb. However, no injuries were reported. An airport employee was also attacked while he was on his way back from duty. He is currently under treatment at a Taluk hospital in the district. A 15-year-old girl was injured when a mob attacked an inter-state KSRTC bus near Valapattanam.
According to senior police officials, the attacks targeting KSRTC buses seem rehearsed and planned. Following the bandh call given by the PFI on Friday, security was beefed up in the entire state. Police had to resort to lathi charge to disperse protesters in Kottayam and Thiruvananthapuram districts.
Meanwhile, the Kerala High Court on Friday initiated suo motu contempt of court proceedings against the Popular Front of India (PFI) and its state General Secretary A Abdul Sathar for calling for a flash hartal in the state. In an earlier order in January 2019, the court had prohibited flash hartals or strikes called without giving seven days’ public notice. A division bench consisting of Justices AK Jayasankaran Nambiar and Mohammed Nias CP said that despite the Kerala High Court’s 2019 order, a call for a flash hartal was made on Thursday by the PFI.
