Leader of the Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan on Tuesday said it was an insult to the Assembly to turn it into “a hiding place” for someone eluding police arrest.
Talking to the media after the adjournment of the day's sitting of the Assembly, he said the demonstration staged by the Opposition in the House was in protest against using the Assembly complex as “an asylum” for Indian Union Muslim League MLA P.K. Basheer, whose name figured on the First Information Statement filed in the court in connection with the Areekode twin-murder.
In reply to a question, Mr. Achuthanandan said it was irrelevant for the Chief Minister to compare the issue of the police not arresting Mr. Basheer, with the issue of the police not taking into custody CPI(M) MLA K.K. Jayachandran in connection with the old political murders being reinvestigated by the police in Idukki district. If the police were to come up with a case against Mr. Jayachandran, the CPI(M) would ask him to take bail from the court before entering the Assembly complex, he said.
He disputed the Chief Minister's observation that arrests should not be made merely on the basis of First Information Statement. “Mr. Basheer is an MLA representing the ruling front. It is their police who have named him in the First Information Statement. Will the State police do it without sufficient reason,” Mr. Achuthanandan asked.
He alleged that the government had assigned the special team now investigating the Areekode twin-murder case the task of saving the real culprits.
