Tension grips Barton Hill colony

Thiruvananthapuram: The police said a tense situation was prevailing in Barton Hill colony following an intra-gang fight on Friday night. One person was seriously injured and a house damaged in the underworld factional fight.

 

Anil alias Ani Kuttan, 35, was admitted to the hospital with his right hand severed on the night of June 27. The police have named alleged gang leader “Goondukadu” Shabu as prime suspect in the attempted murder case.

 

Circle Inspector N.A. Baiju said Anil was Shabu’s close associate. He was looking after Shabu’s financial interests when the “gang leader” was detained in prison under the provisions of the Kerala Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act. He said Shabu and Anil had become rivals recently. On Sunday night, Anil entered Shabu’s house with a cooking gas cylinder and tried to set the house on fire. Anil’s grievance was that Shabu had not secured his early release after he was arrested in an illicit liquor case.

 

The police said Shabu rushed his wife and her mother out of the house and cut Anil with a machete in self-defence. He absconded after admitting Anil to a hospital.

 

On Sunday, persons suspected to be Shabu’s supporters ransacked the house of Anil’s brother, Kunjumon. The CI said Kunjumon was attacked for alerting the police about the incident.

 

Shabu was arrested last year on the charge of carrying a machete to a public meeting attended by Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan. He told the police that he faced threat from rival gangs and had carried the weapon for self protection. Shabu was also arrested last year on the charge of extorting money from a flat builder.

 

In February 2007, the Fort police booked Shabu on the charge of possessing a fake passport. The police said Shabu had spent five months in Dubai on a visit visa and later travelled to Kish, an Iranian city.

 

Shabu’s brother, “Goondukadu” Shaji, who was murdered in the 90’s, was accused by the police, along with some Congressmen, of throwing crude bombs at AKG Centre (State headquarters of the Communist Party of India-Marxist). Shabu is currently a member of the Barton Hill unit of the party’s youth wing and president of the local residents’ association.

UDF walkout over Kattappana violence

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Opposition United Democractic (UDF) members staged a walkout from the Assembly on Monday over the violence at Kattappana in Idukki district on Sunday against KC(M) legislator Roshy Augustin, DCC president and former MLA P. T. Thomas and several Opposition activists. Leading the walkout, Congress deputy legislature party leader G. Karthikeyan accused the police of having entered into a pact with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M) to beat up opponents of the government and said the incidents in Idukki in connection with the elections to the Kattappana service cooperative bank proved this to be so. The large contingent of police present on the scene had remained passive spectators when CPI(M) workers beat up Opposition activists. Even the vehicle in which the injured former MLA was sought to be taken to hospital was detained and attacked, he said.

                               

Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said that cases had been registered against eight CPI(M) activists for attacking Mr. Augustine, Mr. Thomas and others and against another 10 persons for the detention and vandalising of Mr. Augusthy’s car. The government had deployed a heavy contingent of police at the election venue on instructions from the Kerala High Court and the polling itself was peaceful. Out of 11,065 votes, 5,377 votes were polled and the UDF won in the election. The violence took place outside the polling booth and not inside, he said. K. Babu (Congress), who sought leave for an adjournment motion on the subject, accused the Home Minister of having misrepresented facts and said the violence was the handiwork of persons with no voting right who had entered the counting station as agents of LDF candidates. The violence took place in the presence of the police personnel.      

The Crime Squad under the Kalamassery Circle Inspector recovered gold ornaments and a mobile phone stolen in December 2006.

KOCHI: The Crime Squad under the Kalamassery Circle Inspector recovered gold ornaments and a mobile phone stolen in December 2006. The accused in the case, Arafat, 27, of Malappuram, was arrested recently at Ponnani in connection with a robbery case. During interrogation, he confessed to stealing gold ornaments weighing 34.5 sovereigns and one mobile phone from residence of Mathews near Changampuzha Nagar, Kalamassery, in the early morning hours of December 25, 2006.—Staff Reporter

DYFI plans campaign against superstition

ALAPPUZHA: The Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), as part of its campaign against ‘trading of spiritualism’ and superstition, will set up a ‘Nava Kerala Samithi’ at the panchayat, municipal and corporation levels in the State.

 

Addressing a press conference here on Monday, DYFI State Secretary T.V. Rajesh said the constitution of the samithi’s branches would be completed by July 15. The body, which would continue its activities till the aims were met, was open to people from all religions and walks of life.

 

Congregations of inter-caste/inter-religion couples, weddings sans luxury and extravaganza and mass marriages would be among the activities of the samithi, Mr. Rajesh said, adding that campaigns against use of drugs and alcohol would also be part of the agenda.

 

Stating that the youth in Kerala had become “bar-attached” and in the grip of an alcohol-driven mafia, Mr. Rajesh said the DYFI would not hesitate to take action against any of its leaders or activists who accepted dowry.

 

On the textbook controversy, the DYFI leader said the issue was part of ‘polarisation attempts’ by certain communal forces. In the midst of that, private education traders were pushing students out on to the streets to further their agenda.

 

Alleging that certain religious forces ‘clad in robes’ were trying to inject communalism into the minds of children, Mr. Rajesh said ‘cheap’ politicians were taking help from such people to create religious rifts in society.

 

The DYFI and its allied student organisations would not allow such attempts to break the secular fabric of the State. Citing critical reports on student politics, Mr. Rajesh demanded that the media clarify its stance on the issue. Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy too should clarify his position on politics on the campus.

SFI to protest against fee hike in medical colleges

KANNUR: The Students Federation of India (SFI) will take out a protest march to the Secretariat on July 3 to protest against the fee hike in government medical colleges.

 

SFI State secretary A.N. Shamseer said at a press conference here on Tuesday that medical and paramedical students in the State would participate in the protest march and dharna. He also said that the SFI would launch a campaign on July 2 against the propaganda against the controversial Class VII social science textbook.

 

The SFI would distribute copies of the textbook to the public as part of the campaign to expose the propaganda being unleashed by communal interests.

 

Mr. Shamseer said that those who were demanding the withdrawal of the textbook were religious fanatics. He also said that Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy, Indian Union Muslim League leader P.K. Kunhalikutty, Archbishop Joseph Powathil and Nair Service Society general secretary P.K. Narayana Panikkar were working as a ‘gang of four’ to make Kerala a ‘lunatic asylum.’