Thiruvananthapuram: A trial court quashed the charges framed by police against two persons for posting ‘threatening’ messages against chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Facebook. Police had slapped serious charges against the two, to which the court observed that “the prosecution miserably failed” in establishing that they had any intention to harm the CM, who is a person guarded by high and armed security.
The complaint was filed by the CM’s then private secretary M V Jayarajan before the state police chief, against two persons Dinesh Babu and Indira natives of Perinthalmanna and Mukkom, respectively, for posting a message making a call for assassinating Vijayan citing him as “anti-Hindu”. The Facebook messages were posted in 2018 when protests were going on across the state against the entry of women in Sabarimala temple.
The complaint filed by the CM’s office was then handed over the high-tech crime inquiry cell in the police headquarters, which then reported to the state police chief that cases can be registered under the sections 115 (abetment of offence punishable with death or imprisonment for life if offence not committed), 153 (provocation for rioting) and 506 (criminal intimidation). The probe was then conducted by the crime branch, Kozhikode.
Judicial first class magistrate, Thamarassery, Ardra Nithin, observed that if the accused had real intention to cause alarm to the CM, the said aspect would have been conveyed properly to the CM. “But in the present case, the said fact was only through a Facebook message posted in the profile of the first accused, to which the second accused commented. The said message is not expected to cause alarm to the CM, who is guarded with armed security and also far-fetched from the access of the accused,” the court observed.
The court observed that if at all the said message would have caused alarm to the CM, it was he himself who ought to have deposed the same before the court to prove that he was “alarmed” by the threat. The court observed that the CM was not added as a witness and thereby “the prosecution has withheld the best evidence to support their claim”.
It also said on a perusal of the oral evidence of Jayarajan, there is nothing to show that there was an act of rioting or incidents likely to cause rioting after the accused had posted life threatening comments against the CM.
The complaint was filed by the CM’s then private secretary M V Jayarajan before the state police chief, against two persons Dinesh Babu and Indira natives of Perinthalmanna and Mukkom, respectively, for posting a message making a call for assassinating Vijayan citing him as “anti-Hindu”. The Facebook messages were posted in 2018 when protests were going on across the state against the entry of women in Sabarimala temple.
The complaint filed by the CM’s office was then handed over the high-tech crime inquiry cell in the police headquarters, which then reported to the state police chief that cases can be registered under the sections 115 (abetment of offence punishable with death or imprisonment for life if offence not committed), 153 (provocation for rioting) and 506 (criminal intimidation). The probe was then conducted by the crime branch, Kozhikode.
Judicial first class magistrate, Thamarassery, Ardra Nithin, observed that if the accused had real intention to cause alarm to the CM, the said aspect would have been conveyed properly to the CM. “But in the present case, the said fact was only through a Facebook message posted in the profile of the first accused, to which the second accused commented. The said message is not expected to cause alarm to the CM, who is guarded with armed security and also far-fetched from the access of the accused,” the court observed.
The court observed that if at all the said message would have caused alarm to the CM, it was he himself who ought to have deposed the same before the court to prove that he was “alarmed” by the threat. The court observed that the CM was not added as a witness and thereby “the prosecution has withheld the best evidence to support their claim”.
It also said on a perusal of the oral evidence of Jayarajan, there is nothing to show that there was an act of rioting or incidents likely to cause rioting after the accused had posted life threatening comments against the CM.
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