Charges were framed against Left Democratic Front (LDF) convener E. P. Jayarajan in the Assembly ruckus case on Monday after he appeared before the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), Thiruvananthapuram, on the day.
Though the court had framed charges against the five accused, including General Education Minster V. Sivankutty earlier, proceedings could not be initiated against Mr. Jayarajan as he abstained from appearing before the court citing ill health.
On Monday, Mr. Jayarajan denied commission of the offences as R. Rekha, the CJM, read out the charges against him.
The accused, including Mr. Sivankutty, Mr. Jayarajan, K.T. Jaleel, MLA, K. Ajith, C. K. Sadasivan and K. Kunjahamad, have been charged with offences of damaging public property under the Prevention of Damages to Public Property Act and trespassing and causing mischief and acting with common intention under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code.
The LDF leaders, according to the charges, damaged public property on the dais of the Speaker in their attempt to prevent the then Finance Minister K. M. Mani from presenting the Budget on March 13, 2015.
The LDF had protested against Mani for his alleged involvement in the bar bribery case. The accused together caused a pecuniary loss of ₹ 2.20 lakh to the exchequer, according to the charge framed against them.
The court approved the prosecution plea to forward the 13 DVDs it had produced as electronic evidence in the case to the Forensic Science Laboratory, Thiruvananthapuram, to obtain its cloned copies. Six sets of 13 DVDs will have to be provided to the accused in the case.
The court allowed the prosecution one month’s time for completing the pre-trial proceedings and posted the case for October 26.
