Date:07/01/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/01/07/stories/2009010751910300.htm

Kerala - Kozhikode

Nadapuram: hartal total, 5 arrested

Staff Reporter

All are IUML activists

Accused remanded in judicial custody
Hartal supporters hurl a crude bomb at police camp

Kozhikode: The police on Tuesday arrested five persons and took another 22 persons into preventive custody in connection with the violence at Nadapuram town on Monday night.

Those arrested were Izzam, Abdul Razak, Jamal, Sameer and Rashed, all activists of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML). They were charged under Section 142 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapons), 283 (danger or obstruction in public way or line of navigation), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 341 (wrongful restraint) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) read with Section 3(1) of the Prevention of Destruction to Public Property Act. One of them was charged with Section 307 (attempt to murder) of the IPC.

The accused were produced before the Nadapuram First Class Judicial Magistrate’s Court and remanded to judicial custody. Those taken into preventive custody have been released later. Now the situation was under control, said Anup Kuruvilla John, Commissioner of Police, Kozhikode city, who is holding additional charge of the post of Superintendent of Police, Vadakara.

A hartal called by the IUML local unit at Nadapuram grama panchayat on Tuesday to protest against the police action on Monday was total.

Traders’ protest

Most of the shops and commercial establishments were closed. The traders in the area also observed a protest against the attack on shops during the incident on Monday.

Hartal supporters hurled a country-made bomb at a police camp at Nadapuram in the early hours of Tuesday. No casualties were reported, the police said.

Several persons, including 10 policemen, were injured when a march taken out by IUML activists at Nadapuram town at 9 p.m. on Monday to protest against the arrest of a worker at Thooneri turned violent. Stones were hurled at policemen and a police jeep damaged. Numerous shops and vehicles were also damaged in the incident.

The police had to resort to lathicharge and fire tear gas shells to disperse the violent agitators.

The police had arrested the IUML activists from Thooneri in connection with the investigations into the bomb attack on a BJP procession at Mudavantheri on Sunday.