more-in Six persons, including a branch secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), who were arrested on the charge of manhandling an expectant mother along with her husband near Velamkode at Kodenchery in Kozhikode district during a dispute over land ownership, were remanded in judicial custody on Thursday. The accused, CPI(M) leader Thampi Kurien, 51, Renjith Vadakkedam, 35, P. Joy, 40, M. Saidalavi, 40, N.K. Sarasu, 60, and Binoy Valiyaparambil, 38, were charged under section 316 of the Indian Penal Code (punishment for causing death of quick unborn child by act amounting to culpable homicide) on the basis of a complaint filed by Jyotsna Sibi, the woman who lost her four-month-old foetus, allegedly in the impact of the attack that took place on January 28. The police said the woman was attacked along with other family members when she tried to prevent the gang from beating up her husband Sibi Chacko during a scuffle over land ownership. The woman, who was under critical care after the incident, lost her child on February 2. Prajeesh, one of her neighbours and the main accused in the case who allegedly kicked the woman in her stomach, had been already arrested in connection with the incident. The six accused, who were remanded in judicial custody by the Thamarassery Judicial First Class Magistrate Court-II on Thursday, were also charged under Sections 143 (punishment for unlawful assembly) 147 (punishment for rioting), 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint) , 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), and 324 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons) of the IPC. The family had staged a hunger stir in front of the Kodenchery police station seeking the arrest of all the accused in the incident. They had also alleged that the police were trying to guard the accused who were trying to escape from the charges using their political influence. Various political parties too had taken up the issue seeking justice for the family. Meanwhile, Kodenchery police said the woman accidentally became a victim in the incident. Some of the accused were in an inebriated state and they were ignorant of the expectant mother, the police said.

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