Cong cries foul over Vijayan govt shielding party men
Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Assembly on Tuesday witnessed cat-calls and words like ‘rascal, nonsense’ that rendered the air in the House between angry opposition and treasury bench legislators.
A peeved Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan lost his cool when young Congress legislator Shafi Parambil raised the issue of Vijayan government spending close to Rs 88 lakh on employing expensive lawyers from Delhi to save almost a dozen of his party men, presently in jail in the Periya twin murder case.
“You should not forget this money is not coming from your party headquarters, but from the fund-starved Kerala coffers. You have employed expensive lawyers to ensure that a division bench of the Kerala High Court over rules the decision of a single bench, which entrusted this murder case to the CBI,” said Parambil and wondered if the State Police chief is also the State Home Minister.
Parambil pointed out that even though the division bench has not stayed the CBI probe, despite several reminders and passing of five months, the Crime branch wing of the Kerala Police is yet to hand over the case diary.
Youth Congress workers Krupesh (19) and Joshy (24) were attacked by three motorcycle-borne men while returning from an event, in February last year.
While Krupesh died at the Kasargode district hospital, Joshy succumbed to his injuries on his way to a medical facility in Mangaluru, Karnataka.
The Crime Branch police have arrested 14 persons, but the parents of the victims approached the High Court and a single judge bench handed over the case to the CBI.
“Yes, we are not convinced with the ruling of the single judge bench and the law permits us to go in appeal and we did that. And bringing in lawyers from Delhi is not new. We will do the same again, if a need arises. The division bench of the High Court has kept the case for its orders. Let us wait for it to come,” said Vijayan.
Intervening on the issue was Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala who said it was shameful on the part of Vijayan to go to the extent of trying to save party criminals.
“The fact that you have decided to appeal, clearly shows that you are with the accused and not with the hapless families of the victims. We wish to know if you will go in appeal in all cases where a CBI probe is sought. The interests of you and your party is very clear and that’s to save the criminals,” said Chennithala and led the entire opposition out of the house.
