A Magistrate's court in Ottappalam today sentenced senior CPI(M) leader and Kerala Electricity Minister A K Balan to two years in jail, for obstructing rail traffic during a party agitation in Shoranur seven years ago.The court also indicted CPM MP S Ajayakumar, MLA M Chandran and five CPI(M) workers. They have been granted a month’s time to go for appeal.The case relates to 2000, when the DYFI, CPI(M)’s youth outfit, organised a statewide agitation against Centre’s policies that involved blocking train traffic. Balan and others had led the agitation at the Shoranur Junction railway station.
