Thiruvananthapuram: Trial in the 2015 Kerala assembly ruckus case will begin before the Thiruvananthapuram chief judicial magistrate court on Nov 3.Two witnesses — the then assembly secretary P D Sarangadharan and the engineer who copied the digital video recordings inside the assembly — will be examined in the first stage of the trial, it is learnt.The case relates to the ruckus in the assembly on March 13, 2015, when the then finance minister K M Mani arrived to present the state budget. The opposition LDF had launched a strong protest over the bar bribery allegations against Mani. During the protest, some opposition MLAs entered the speaker’s dais and damaged assembly equipment, including computers. The damage was estimated at Rs 2.20 lakh.The accused in the case include CPM functionaries V Sivankutty, E P Jayarajan and K T Jaleel, along with K Ajith, K Kunhammed and C K Sadasivan. Ajith, who was a CPI MLA at the time of the incident, is now with the BJP.After the LDF govt came to power in 2018, it moved to withdraw the case. The trial court and the high court rejected govt’s plea. The matter subsequently reached the Supreme Court and a bench comprising Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice M R Shah too dismissed the LDF govt’s plea. The accused will now have to face trial.
