At around 11 am on Friday, BJP Kerala General Secretary K Surendran was remanded to 14 days judicial custody by Ranni Grama Nyaayalaya Court, in connection with a conspiracy case in the attack on a 52-year-old woman Lalitha, which took place at Sannidhanam on November 6. The hearing for his bail will be heard before the Ranni First Class Magistrate on Saturday.
An FIR was filed on November 6 by Sannidhanam police against 150 unknown people for attacking a 52-year-old woman, Lalitha, who had come to the Sabarimala temple for darshan. The crowd had suspected that she was below 50 years.
When Surendran was produced before the Ranni Grama Nyaayalaya Court on Friday morning in relation to the case, the police submitted that Surendran should remain in police custody to facilitate further investigation in the case. This request was denied, and he will, therefore, remain in judicial custody.
Surendran submitted three requests before the court: that he should be granted bail, be allowed to communicate with his family, and that he should be moved from Kottarakkara sub-jail to Central Jail.
His lawyer, advocate Haridas, told TNM, “Being a small sub-jail, the facilities at Kottarakkara jail are very poor. It is overcrowded and is filled to nearly twice its holding capacity. He wants to be moved to the Central Jail in Thiruvananthapuram, which at least has the basic required facilities for inmates.”
All of Surendran’s requests will be heard during his bail hearing on Saturday.
“These cases are a conspiracy coming straight from the CMO’s office to various police stations to trap me,” Surendran told reporters when he was being taken from the Kottarakkara sub-jail to the Ranni Court. He added, “But I will not feign chest pain in order to evade jail, I will face all cases boldly.”
On Wednesday, the Pathanamthitta Magistrate Court had granted conditional bail to him in the November 17 case. A day after this, Surendran’s name figured as an accused in a case registered on November 6.
Names of Surendran and 16 others were added to the FIR on November 6 and the charges invoked include section 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 354 (using criminal force to outrage the modesty of a woman), 188 (disobeying the orders of a public servant), 283 (danger or obstruction of public line of navigation), and sec 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.