Furnish details of violences in Kannur, SC tells Kerala

The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Kerala Government to produce the list of all political violences in Thalassery, Kannur, in the past year. The report is to be produced in the apex court within two months.
 
 

The court made the observation while taking up a petition filed by the State Government to remove the comments made by the Kerala High Court in a case related to the bail application of the RSS activists who were charged with the murder CPI(M) worker Sudhir Kumar in Thalassery in November last. The apex court accepted the petition.
 

The Kerala Government, in its plea, prayed the court that the State police had conducted an independent and impartial investigation in the cases related to the Thalassery violence. The court, however, asked the Government whether its investigations were negating the basic realities. A division bench of the Supreme Court comprising Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan and Justice PM Ravindran considered the case.
 

The High Court of Kerala had made an observation against the State Government on the bail plea of the RSS workers in April last that political parties were creating violent situations in the Thalassery area and that this was causing hindrance to even the mobility of common people who were in no way connected to the murderous politics.
 

The observation of the court was taken as a prestige issue by the CPI(M), and party State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan came out in defence of the CPI(M) stand on the issue and lashed out at the High Court observation.
 

There were also observations against the police. The State police was not effective in controlling the violence in the area, the court had observed. The High Court verdict had created an uproar in the State with the Congress coming out against the politics of violence practised by the CPI(M) and its actions of antagonising those who were against it.
 

The Congress leadership had then said that the CPI(M) was trying to silence every institution of democracy which was opposing that party, be it the media, judiciary or bureaucracy, citing several examples.
 

Thalassery and its adjoining areas in Kannur district have been witnessing violent political clashes for the past several years. In the recent spate of violence starting March 5, five RSS workers and two CPI(M) activists lost their lives. Several people including local RSS leader MP Sumesh were maimed in the political attack carried out by the CPI(M).
 

People of the area had heaved a sigh of relief when the High Court came out against the violent politics practised by political parties. The local people also were of the opinion that the police were acting totally in a biased manner and this had accelerated the process of killings and violence.
 

Thalassery, which was once the cultural capital of the State and the birthplace of Indian cricket, has lost its charm due to violence and it is now a town where the people live in the fear of eruption of violence at any time. Local people vouch that the mediocre politicians are the reason for such violence in the town and that the CPI(M), the largest political party of the area, should show some restraint to put an end to this violence.