Plea against Basheers election dismissed

KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Thursday ‘dismissed a petition with costs’ challenging the election of PK Basheer of the IUML from the Eranad Assembly constituency.Justice M Sasidharan Nambiar dismissed the petition filed by P V Anwar, the defeated LDF independent candidate, seeking to declare Basheer’s election as void.The court directed Anwar to pay Rs 2000 to Basheer to meet the legal expenses incurred by the MLA. Anwar had lost to Basheer by a margin of 11,246 votes in the election.The petitioner challenged the election of Basheer on the ground of corruption of practice under Section 123(2)(II) of Representations of People Act.Anwar alleged that the UDF election committee had circulated 25,000 pamphlets stating that he was involved in the murder of one Manaf in 1995.