The Popular Front of India (PFI), which was banned for five years by the Union Home Ministry on Thursday, got another jolt in the form of an order by the Kerala High Court (HC) to deposit `5.2 crore with the Additional Chief Secretary (Government of Kerala), towards the damages estimated by the State Administration as well as the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation on account of its flash strike on September 23.

The PFI observed the strike across Kerala to protest arrests of its leaders from different places in the State on September 22.

A Division Bench of Justices AK Jayasankaran Nambiar and CP Mohammed Nias ruled that  the PFI and its general secretary were “wholly and directly” responsible for the injuries inflicted by their supporters on the citizens as also for the damage caused to public and private properties.

The PFI activists had rioted across the State on September 23 and forced shopkeepers to down their shutters and blocked roads.

They damaged  commodities stored in the shops of traders who refused to oblige them.

The justices said that the hartal on September 23 was a violation of the Kerala High Court order of January 2019 that made flash hartals and bundhs illegal since these caused great hardship to the poor who  toil from morning till evening  to meet the ends of life.

The State Administration represented by the Secretary to the Department of Home told the Court that despite taking preventive measures, the PFI had indulged in violent incidents such as blocking public pathways, preventing vehicular traffic, attacking vehicles, pedestrians, shops and other establishments and throwing bombs at few places.

“The hartal sympathizers also obstructed the police by applying force with an intention to deter them from carrying out their official duty... In addition to the heavy losses suffered by the KSRTC, private vehicles and establishments also suffered from the wrath of the hartal sympathizers,” the justices quoted the State Administration as saying in their reply to the Court notice. 

The Court asked the  PFI leadership to deposit the amount of Rs 5.2 crores within a period of two weeks from  September 29 with the additional chief secretary to the Government of Kerala.

“The amounts so realized shall be purely provisional and shall be duly accounted for and held by the State Government in a separate and dedicated account for disbursal to those claimants who are identified by the Claims Commissioner as entitled to such accounts. The respondents (General secretary and PFI) shall also be liable to such further amounts as are found to be payable to the claimants in the adjudication proceedings before the Claims Commissioner,” said the Court order.