Kanhangad Block panchayat president, convicted in Periya double murder case, resigns to preempt disqualification
The Kanhangad Block Panchayat president stepped down to preempt potential disqualification and avoid a by-election close to the term's end.
The Kanhangad Block Panchayat president stepped down to preempt potential disqualification and avoid a by-election close to the term's end.
The Kanhangad Block Panchayat president stepped down to preempt potential disqualification and avoid a by-election close to the term's end.
Kasaragod: Kanhangad Block Panchayat president K Manikandan -- the only elected representative among the 14 CPM workers and leaders convicted in the Periya double murder case -- has resigned from both the presidency and from the Block Panchayat board. He handed over his resignation letter to the Block Panchayat Secretary on Saturday, June 22, more than five months after the conviction.
Congress leader M K Baburajan, a Kanhangad Block Panchayat member representing the Periya division, had approached the Election Commission seeking Manikandan’s disqualification, citing his five-year conviction for aiding the escape of an accused in the same case from police custody.
With the Election Commission expected to announce its verdict on the complaint by the end of this month, Manikandan (45) appears to have pre-empted it by resigning. A disqualification would have handed the UDF a sharper political weapon in the election.
According to CPM sources, Manikandan was asked to delay his resignation until after the Nilambur byelection to avoid turning it into an election issue. The party also timed the move to prevent a bypoll at the fag end of the term. As per Section 149(4) of the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act, 1994, no byelection is required if the vacancy arises within six months of the board’s term ending.
On January 3, the CBI special court convicted K Manikandan and three other CPM leaders, including District Secretariat member and former Udma MLA K V Kunhiraman (62), and sentenced them to five years in prison for freeing an accused from police custody. On appeal, the High Court, on January 8, suspended their sentence (but not the conviction) and granted them bail until the petition is heard -- a process that may take up to five years due to the backlog of cases.
However, the CPM leaders, including Kunhiraman, spun the bail as an acquittal, claiming the "fortress of lies" had collapsed.
To be sure, Manikandan had maintained that only the sentence was "quashed", not the conviction, and that his appeal to quash the case is still pending before the High Court. The CBI had also charged him with destruction of evidence, but the CBI Special Court acquitted him of that charge due to lack of evidence. Ten other CPM leaders and workers were convicted for conspiracy and murder of Youth Congress workers Kripesh and Sarathlal P K in February 2019, in the run-up to the Lok Sabha election.