The Ernakulam District Sessions Court on Thursday denied bail to Nipun Cherian, the chief of V4Kerala, who allegedly allowed traffic onto Kochi’s Vyttila flyover before it’s inauguration by CM Pinarayi Vijayan, scheduled to be held on Saturday.
On Monday evening, one end of the closed Vytilla flyover was opened by unidentified persons, allowing scores of motorists onto the newly built structure. The unexpected move caused a major traffic block in the area for about an hour.
Nipun Cherian and three other leaders of V4Kerala, a people’s group which contested in the Kochi Corporation during the recently held civic polls, were nabbed by police the same night for allegedly being responsible for the offence. However, the group had denied this.
According to sources, Nipun was denied bail on grounds that he allegedly violated his pre-existing bail condition. Nipun, a social worker, had been leading the protests against the encroachment of the Chilavanoor lake. The previous case against him was in relation to this matter. Meanwhile, the three others -- Soorej, Anchalos and Raphel, who were arrested along with Nipun were granted bail. The accused were arrested on charges of damaging public property.
On Wednesday morning, three other V4Kerala members -- Shakeer Ali, Sajan Asees and Antony Alvin -- were also arrested in the case.
The construction for the Vyttila flyover was started in 2017 and was initially slated to be opened for traffic in early 2019, but was delayed. It is located along the National Highway 66 stretch, one of thw worst traffic bottlenecks in Kochi city. Once the flyover is officially opened, it will be a major relief to the motorists who had been struggling because of traffic. Recently, V4Kerala members had held a protest against the delay in opening the flyover. The group had also declared that they would engage in stronger protest if the flyover was not opened by Saturday.
Meanwhile, the counsel for V4Kochi told TNM that they would move to the High Court for securing bail for Nipun.