Onchiyam case: Security tightened in Kozhikode, Kannur

Prohibitory orders ahead of verdict in murder case

With the verdict in the case of the murder of Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) leader T.P. Chandrasekharan posted for January 22, security has been tightened in Kozhikode and Kannur districts.

A high-level meeting chaired by Additional Director General of Police (North Zone) N. Shankar Reddy in Kozhikode rural and Kannur on Friday decided to clamp prohibitory orders on Vadakara and Nadapuram sub-divisions in Kozhikode district and Thalassery sub-division and the Payyannur police station limits in Kannur district for a week beginning Monday.

Last month, R. Narayana Pisharadi, judge, Special Additional Sessions Court (Marad cases), Eranhipalam, had posted the verdict to January 22. The case relates to a section of Communist Party of India (Marxist) leaders in Kozhikode and Kannur districts allegedly hatching a plot and employing a seven-member gang to kill Chandrasekharan at Onchiyam on May 4, 2012. The prohibitory orders will be imposed under Section 78 (regulation to prevent violence) and Section 79 (regulation of public assemblies) of the Kerala Police Act. A meeting of police officers will be held here on Saturday to decide on taking preventive measures, including ban orders in the city, Mr. Reddy told

The Hindu .

The two meetings on Friday were attended by personnel right from the Station House Officers to the Superintendents of Police. Kannur Range Inspector General of Police Suresh Raj Purohit also attended the meet.

The order prohibits the preparation, storage, or transport of destructive material, explosives, gunpowder, stones or other missiles or instruments that can be used for the making or launch of missiles or any weapon or object that can be used for attack. It bans the exhibition of living persons or corpses or the preparation, exhibition, representation, distribution or dissemination of pictures, symbols, placards, printed matter, pamphlets, books, audio-video recordings, digital records, posters which may inflame communal or religious passions or offend general standards of public morality or seriously affect public peace or endanger the security of the nation.

Public assemblies

Public assemblies and procession will be regulated for maintenance of law and order on these days. If required, the ban orders will be extended even up to 15 days.

Mr. Reddy said prohibitory orders had been decided considering the problem at each police district. The special court trying the murder case and the jail where the accused were lodged are in the city. The incident took place at Onchiyam in Kozhikode rural and most of the witnesses were from Thalassery. Ban orders had been imposed on Payyannur following violence in the region recently.

As part of the security measures, the police will be deployed in all politically sensitive regions in Kannur and Kozhikode districts. Additional personnel will be drawn from the Malabar Special Police, Armed Battalion, and the Armed Reserve Camp. Preventive arrests will be made in trouble-prone areas. Patrolling has been intensified on the State and National Highways during daytime and night hours.