By IANS
Kozhikode : Five activists of Kerala’s ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), serving life term in the Central Jail in Kannur, were Sunday shifted to the Viyur prison in Thrissur district following court orders.
The Kannur central Jail has been at the centre of controversies following charges that political prisoners there were controlling the affairs in the prison.
The Kerala High Court last month ordered the transfer of the prisoners after the then director general of police (prisons) M.G.A. Raman informed it that they were causing trouble.
The court ruling did not find favour with the CPI-M-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) government and it transferred Raman from the post later.
Kannur district, 100 km north from here, for long had been a hotbed of political violence with clashes between the CPI-M and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) activists resulting in murders in several cases.
In 2004, a clash in the prison resulted in the death of a CPI-M man. It was following this incident that political prisoners were first shifted out of the jail.
However, during the previous Congress-led government 13 such prisoners were brought back to Kannur. Five of them have now been transferred back to Viyur.
As for the rest of the 13 inmates, five had been released from jail, one had died and two were on parole. Those on parole will also be transferred to Viyur on their return.