A court in Mavelikkara, Kerala on Wednesday sought a report from the police on the action it had taken over a complaint lodged with them requesting registration of a case against Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for travelling on the roof of a police vehicle on Monday while taking part in a Youth Congress rally at Nooranad in Alappuzha district.
The Judicial Magistrate asked the Sub-Inspector of the Nooranad police station, under the limits of which the incident took place, to submit its report before January 29. The court directive came on a petition filed by local NCP leader Mujeeb Rahman pleading for its intervention as the police had refused to register a case against Rahul for violating traffic rules.
Mujeeb Rahman, a lawyer, had in his complaint lodged with the Nooranad police sought registration of a case for violation of Section 123 of the Kerala Motor Vehicles Act and provisions of the Police Act against Rahul as well as Dean Kuriakose, State president of the Youth Congress who had sat with Rahul on the roof of the police vehicle.
As expected, the police, ruled by Congress Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala, had refused to book Rahul Gandhi saying that he had climbed on top of the police vehicle as per instructions from the SPG. The police said that the SPG asked Rahul to climb atop the police jeep when crowds of Youth Congress activists swelled posing security concerns.
According to the police, those – except Dean Kuriakose – who were around Rahul Gandhi when he had climbed on the roof of the vehicle were SPG commandos in civil dress. However, the police had no explanation to offer on why no case could be registered against Dean, against whom also there was a complaint.
The police said that even if a case had to be registered against Rahul it would be done only after studying the complaint in detail. “Do you think Chennithala, who is the State Congress chief, or the Congress-led UDF Government would be prepared to book their national vice-president for thisIJ” asked a former top police official in Kochi.
Mujeeb refused to accept the explanation of the police that Rahul had travelled on the vehicle roof-top as per SPG instructions because of security concerns. Mujeeb had named Home Minister Chennithala as the first witness in his private complaint he filed in the court.
He sought the court’s intervention in the matter as the police were refusing to initiate a case against Rahul, who had also violated the Kerala Police Act by misusing the police vehicle for doing political campaigning, because of political pressures. Chennithala had vehemently defended Rahul’s travel on the roof of the police vehicle.
At the same time, the DYFI, youth wing of the CPI(M), on Wednesday lodged a complaint against Rahul on the same issue with State Transports Commissioner Rishi Raj Singh, known as a tough law-enforcer. The complaint, which said Rahul had blatantly violated the law, was filed by DYFI’s State secretary M Swaraj.
Terming Rahul as a joker for making a scene by climbing on the roof of the police vehicle, State CPI(M) secretary Pinarayi Vijayan had the other day criticized Rishi Raj Singh, who had recently issued an order making wearing of helmet mandatory for two-wheeler driving even while cinema-shooting, for not taking action against the Congress vice-president.
The incident had occurred at Nooranad on Monday afternoon. Rahul Gandhi had joined the Yuva Kerala Yatra, a State-wide march of the Youth Congress led by Dean Kuriakose, at that place. As he walked some distance with the marchers, the rush of activists went out of control. At that point, he climbed on top of the first available police jeep that was moving alongside.