Syed Shah Mohammed Quadri, J.

1. Leave is granted in all the Special Leave Petitions.

2. These four appeals arise out of the common judgment of a Division Bench of the High Court of Kerala at Ernakulam in W.A. Nos. 2708/1999,2709/1999,2710/1999,8/2000,52/2000 and 200/2000 dated February 29, 2000. Criminal Appeal No. 689 of 2001 (arising out of SLP (Crl.) No. 1522/2000) is filed by T.T. Antony, Deputy Collector and Executive Magistrate, Kannur; Civil Appeal No. 4066 of 2001 (arising out of SLP (C) No. 8840/2000) is filed by fourteen police constables; and Criminal Appeal Nos. 690-691 of 2001 (arising out of SLP (Crl.) Nos. 2724-25/2000) are filed by the State of Kerala. These appeals relate to the same incident and raise common questions of facts and laws so they are being dealt with together.

3. The relevant facts, giving rise to these appeals, which have a strong political backdrop, need to be noticed for appreciating the contentions of the parties.

4. The Communist Party of India (Marxist), C.P.I.(M), is said to have a strong hold in Kannur District of the State of Kerala. One Mr. M.V. Raghavan who was once a comrade-in-arms in CPI (M) and was its MLA for over 15 years, b