Kerala court tells police not to arrest Congress leaders till Jan 15 in Vijayan suicide case
The Wayanad principal sessions court gave the oral instructions in response to the anticipatory bail pleas filed by the MLA, the district party chief and two others in the ca
A court in Wayanad on Friday orally instructed the police not to arrest Congress MLA IC Balakrishnan and party’s Wayanad unit chief ND Appachan until January 15 in the case of abetment to suicide of party leader NM Vijayan and his son Jijesh.
Vijayan was the party district unit’s treasurer and his son a staff of the party-controlled cooperative bank.
The Wayanad principal sessions court gave the oral instructions in response to the anticipatory bail pleas filed by the MLA, the district party chief and two others in the case. The court also asked the police to produce the case diary.
Meanwhile, the MLA from Sulthan Bathery dismissed reports that he was absconding. “I have come to Karnataka for a personal matter and I will reach Wayanad in a day or two. As a public representative, there is no reason for me to abscond. I believe in the legal system,” Balakrishnan said in a video message.
The MLA alleged that he was being ‘politically targeted’ by the CPI(M) for his popular engagements with the public.
Balakrishnan, Appachan and two other party leaders were booked by the Wayanad police on Thursday for abetting the suicide of Vijayan and his son Jijesh based on the suicide letters publicised by his family.
Vijayan and Jijesh succumbed to poisoning impact at a hospital on December 27. In his suicide note, he has alleged that Balakrishnan and others pushed him into financial debt. The MLA and others demanded bribes from various persons for jobs in party-controlled cooperative banks which were routed through Vijayan. The deceased treasurer claimed in his letter that the jobs did not materialise and he had to return the money to others by taking on loans he could not eventually pay back.
The Congress has announced an internal probe of its own to be led by the party’s disciplinary committee chairperson and MLA Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan.