Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala government has spent Rs. 2.86 crores as the fee for advocates brought from outside the state to fight political murder cases since the LDF government came to power. This amount was spent for the advocates to appear in Kerala High Court in connection with three cases including that of Kripesh-Sarathlal murder of Periya, Kasaragod and SP Shuhaib murder of Edayannur, Kannur. It was Industries Minister P Rajeev, who informed about this in the assembly while giving reply to the question of Sunny Joseph regarding the amount spent to bring advocates from outside the state to fight cases for the government in the High Court. 

Renowned advocates Maninder Singh, Prabhas Bajaj and Ranjith Kumar had appeared in HC to fight the case of Kripesh-Sarathlal murder case. Kripesh and Sarathlal were killed by a CPM gang in 2019. Shuhaib was killed at Edayannur in 2018. Senior advocates Vijay Hansaria, Amarindra Sharan and Harin P Raval appeared for the government in the High Court. 

 Advocate Gopalan Adiyodi Memorial Trust had moved HC seeking CBI investigation in connection with the murder of RSS workers in various attacks held in Kannur  after the first LDF government led by Pinarayi Vijayan came to power in the state. It was senior advocate Harin P Raval, who had appeared for the government in this case. 

The government had spent Rs. 2.72 crores as the fee for advocates in these three cases only. Besides this, government had also spent Rs. 13,67,172 to meet expenses  in connection with their travel and accommodation. 

Apart from these murder cases, government had brought advocates from outside to fight another 18 cases. Government had paid Rs. 8,94,90,000 as fee for them to appear in High Court. Besides this, Rs. 33,54,245 was spent for them to meet their travel and accommodation expenses. 

In total, the government has already spent Rs.12,14,51,417 as the fee for advocates brought from outside the state to fight cases for the government in High Court, said Rajeev.