Keralam High Court, on October 6, set aside the Tiruvananthapuram district Collector’s order to clamp KAAPA (Kerala Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act) on BJP’s Tiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation councillor R. Sugatan. It is a heavy blow to Chief Minister V.D. Satheeshan’s government. The order of the Division Bench of the Court is based on the petition filed by Sugatan’s wife, Aswati. Sugatan was released the same day as per the Court’s order.
Reacting to the High Court order, Rajeev Chandrashekar said the Court’s findings on Sugatan’s detention were “damning”. In a post on X, Chandrashekar said the detention order was issued “in a casual manner without proper application of mind”, while pages of documents provided to Sugatan were missing or illegible. He also said that the State had failed to consider Sugatan’s representations in time, which, according to him, was a direct violation of Article 22(5).
Chandrashekar said an elected representative had spent four months in jail on the detention order, while his family waited for justice and an entire Corporation ward was denied its elected representative. He alleged that the detention was part of a Congress-CPM attempt to subvert the mandate given by the people to the BJP/NDA to govern the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation.
“The motive is clear. This was a Congress/CPM attempt to subvert the historic mandate the people gave the BJP/NDA to govern the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation. They failed,” Chandrashekar said.
He further accused the CPM of misusing the police against BJP karyakartas for 10 years and alleged that the Congress/IUML government was following the same playbook. “They are not two but one. Randalla, Onnanu,” he said, adding that Rahul Gandhi and Congress had no moral right to speak of democracy or the rule of law.
While @RahulGandhi waves the Constitution wherever he goes, his government under CM @vdsatheesan in Keralam is undermining it.
On 6 October, the Kerala High Court quashed the KAAPA detention of our BJP/NDA Thiruvananthapuram Corporation Councillor R. Sugathan.
The Court's… pic.twitter.com/9wia3iHCLs
— Rajeev Chandrasekhar 🇮🇳 (@RajeevRC_X) October 7, 2026
The Court’s order shattered the dreams of both the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and CPM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) to topple the BJP rule in the Corporation Council.
Earlier, BJP had alleged that Sugatan was jailed under KAAPA for political motives. The High Court order is a shock to both Fronts. The Court order has paved the way for questioning the legality of the KAAPA action.
The legal victory in cancelling the KAAPA order has given a shot in the arm for BJP.
On June 24, 2026, the Kerala High Court cancelled the swearing-in oaths of 20 BJP councillors of the Thiruvananthapuram Corporation, including R. Sugatan, calling the original oaths taken in January invalid under the Kerala Municipality Act, 1994, because the councillors invoked unauthorised entities like deities, Bharat Mata, and political martyrs instead of strictly swearing “in the name of God” or making a solemn affirmation. Consequently, those councillors took oath again.
Since Sugatan was in jail, he could not join them. The Government stated that Sugatan could not be released for swearing in. But, the High Court permitted him to take oath inside the jail as people’s mandate had to be respected. Accordingly, Sugatan took oath in the jail on July 14.
After his release from the jail, Sugatan told the media that he was facing the cases in connection with his initiatives to solve the grievances of the people or for his involvement in the political agitations. He said that he would keep on doing his political activities in the future also.
Sugatan’s family members and BJP workers from Tiruvananthapuram received him at the gate of the jail. Since the jail is in Thrissur district, party leaders and workers from Thrissur also joined them.
