Senior Congress leader and former KPCC president, V.M. Sudheeran, has written to the Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, that a judicial enquiry be conducted into the police action against the people who were protesting against their displacement, without even sufficient compensation, following GAIL’s natural gas pipeline-laying work, at Mukkam, Kodiyathoor and Karassery panchayats.
In his letter, Mr. Sudheeran alleged that the GAIL authorities were blatantly violating the Petroleum Mineral Pipeline Act 1962, The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition of 2013 and the Rehabilitation and Re-settlement Act.
He said that the police had reacted aggressively against people who were engaged in a peaceful protest and that the police had unleashed violence against even people who were inside their homes.
Even when efforts to restore normalcy and peace were happening through the efforts of M.I. Shanavas, MP, at Mukkom police station, Mukkom police had arrested several persons who were going about their business, claiming that they were involved in the protest.
The police took into custody, even people who were on their way to work and charged false cases in their names, Mr. Sudheeran said.
Police cases
He said that innumerable people had been injured in the police violence and that many of them were scared that false cases would be foisted against them. He said that it was a shame that a situation akin to the excesses during the British rule was happening in the State when the Chief Minister was handling the Home Department.
Mr. Sudheeran demanded that legal action and departmental action be taken against the police officials found responsible for the violence at Mukkom and nearby panchayats.
