Palakkad: BJP stir turns violent, 8 hurt

Palakkad: The BJP road roko on the Palakkad-Coimbatore highway  turned violent on Saturday when the protesters pelted stones at the police who lathicharged them. Palakkad municipal chairman Prameela Sasidharan and seven  BJP workers were injured in the police action. The workers stoned the police as they had denied the use of mike to them. The protesters were later arrested and removed from the road. The one-and-a-half-hour road blockade was held demanding the arrest of the  culprits involved in the death of a BJP local leader and his sister-in-law after their house was  allegedly attacked by CPM men in December.

BJP general secretary M.T. Ramesh inaugurated the protest and alleged that the three CPM men arrested  were  not the  persons who had set on fire the vehicles parked in front of the house of  BJP leader Radhakrishnan at Puthussery near Kanjikode here.  The LPG cylinder kept on the verandha  had caught fire  leading to a huge explosion. Both Radhakrishnan and his sister-in-law Vimala, a Mahila Morcha functionary, suffered burns and later died in the hospital.