Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Tuesday issued notices to the leaders of the Sabarimala Karma Samiti, BJP and RSS, including former director-general of police T.P. Senkumar and former Public Services Commission chairman K.S. Radhakrishnan, for the losses and destruction of property caused during the hartal organised on January 3 to protest against the entry of two women in Sabarimala temple. The court issued the notices on a petition filed by Mr T.N. Mukundan, a Thrissur native, seeking compensation for the losses suffered by the people from organisations that called the hartal.
The BJP leaders, including state president P.S. Sreedharan Pillai, general secretaries M.T. Ramesh, K.Surendran, A.N. Radhakrishnan, P.K. Krishna Das and O.Ragagopal, Hindu Aikya Vedi leader K.P. Sasikala, Karma Samiti leaders S.J.R. Kumar, Govind Bharathan and RSS leader P.E.B. Menon were also issued notices by the court.
According to the petitioner, action should be initiated against the persons as per the Supreme Court verdict in the Kodungallur Film Society case making the persons directly or indirectly responsible for holding such protests.
The petitioner said that according to the SC verdict, the leaders responsible for calling such protests should present themselves before the police within 24 hours in case of violence. If they fail to report to the police station, they should be declared as fugitives. The petitioner has pleaded that the government should be directed to collect the compensation from the persons responsible for causing the violence and disburse the same to those who have suffered the losses. He also requested the court to direct the government to set up a claims commission to settle the claims. The formation of district-level rapid action forces to deal with violence, submission of a report about the hartal to the government are some of other key demands of petitioner.
