Thiruvanathapuram court frames charges against minister V Sivankutty, 4 others in Assembly ruckus case

All the six accused are facing charges under sections 447 (criminal trespass), 427 (mischief causing damage), read with section 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Sec 3(1) of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property (PDPP) Act.

Thiruvananthapuram: A court in Kerala on Wednesday framed charges against General Education Minister V Sivankutty and some other prominent LDF leaders in the 2015 Assembly ruckus case. The charges were read out by the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) here to Sivankutty, Left MLA K T Jaleel and former MLAs K Ajith, C K Sadasivan and K Kunhammed who denied the same, a lawyer associated with the case said.
Thereafter, the court listed the matter on September 26 for reading out the charges to accused E P Jayarajan who was not present before it, advocate Mridul Mathew said.

All the six accused are facing charges under sections 447 (criminal trespass), 427 (mischief causing damage), read with section 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Sec 3(1) of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property (PDPP) Act.

Advocate Mathew represented senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala, who has been opposing the Left Front leaders’ attempts to get discharged from the case.

Once the charges are read out to Jayarajan, who is also the LDF convenor, the witnesses in the case would be summoned, the lawyer said. The accused except Jayarajan, appeared before the magisterial court after the Kerala High Court earlier this month declined to stay trial in the case and directed directed them to be present before the trial court on September 14. The high court’s order came on a criminal revision petition moved by the  accused last year against the dismissal of their discharge plea by a lower court in Thiruvananthapuram. The high court had also said that it will hear revision petition on September 26