A day after the Kerala State Motor Vehicles Department seized a bus owned by Indigo Airlines at Kozhikode Airport on charges of non-payment of taxes, the Kerala Police filed a First Information Report naming E P Jayarajan, the CPI(M) leader and convener of the LDF and two others in a murder case.
The gun man and personal assistant of chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan are the other two who figure in the FIR as accused numbers two and three. All three have been slapped with charges of 307, 308 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code (attempt to murder and threat to murder). The FIR was filed in response to an order by the Judicial First Class Magistrate of Trivandrum.
The FIR states that Jayarajan tried to strangulate Farzeen Majeed, a Congress leader from Kannur who raised slogans against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan after the latter got down from the aircraft at Thiruvananthapuram airport. Majeed and Naveen Kumar, another Congress leader who flew in the aircraft from Kannur to Thiruvananthapuram had raised the slogan after Vijayan had come out of the aircraft. Seeing the Congress leaders raising slogans against the chief minister, Jayarajan, who was accompanying Vijayan rushed to them and assaulted them physically and abused the duo by showering invectives.
Though the chief minister had told the legislative assembly that no case would be filed against Jayarajan, the Airlines had debarred the latter from flying in its aircraft for three weeks following an investigation by its own staff. Jayarajan declared that he would not fly in IndiGo hereafter even if it remains as the one and only airlineK in the State.
The seizure of the bus owned by the airlines has led to another uproar in the State with many entrepreneurs and business leaders criticizing the action of the MV department. “This is a deplorable action and would lead to rethinking on the part of entrepreneurs and investors about their plans to set up shops in the State. Last six years have seen many entrepreneurs leaving the Kerala shores in search of business friendly States ,” said Rajmohan Pillai, chairman, Beta Group.
Pillai said that the Motor Vehicles Department seizing the bus owned by airlines could not be questioned. “It was the responsibility of the airlines to ensure that all payments were made and papers were in place. But the non-payment of taxes by the airlines was not a serious issue which demanded the seizure of the bus. The question is whether the airlines were issued notices about the outstanding amount,’ said Pillai.
Meanwhile the LDF Government is on a spree of arresting political leaders who are critical of the CPI(M) and the chief minister.