People's Democracy

KERALA NEWSLETTER

Judicial Probe Demanded into Devotee’s Death

N S Sajith

ON August 6, the Kerala state secretariat of the CPI(M) demanded a judicial probe into the suspicious death of Satnam Singh, a young devotee of Amrithanandamayi. Satnam Singh, who hailed from Bihar, was rushed to the Amritanandamayi in her ashram in Vallikkavu, Kollam, and died in police custody. The Crime Branch investigation, announced by the government, is being regarded as meaningless as it is not likely to unearth the alleged police involvement in this incident.

Satnam Singh was taken in custody on August 1 and died in dubious circumstances in a Mental Health Centre in Thiruvananthapuram. Inquest report says that he suffered torture with iron rods. Signs of bruises were also seen on his body. The perpetrators must be punished and the truth about whether he was tortured in the ashram or in police custody or in judicial custody must be unearthed, the CPI(M) statement added.

One recalls that the dubious death of this devotee of ‘human god’ Mata Amrithanandamayi has created a fresh controversy in Kerala, putting the math as well as the UDF government on defensive. This death of Satnam Singh Mann, a resident of Gaya district of Bihar, has left the Home Department clueless, while a spokesman of the ashram said it was not responsible for the death of this 34 years old law student. The latter’s brother, Vimal Kishore, however, alleged that Satnam Singh was brutally tortured in jail.

On August 1, Satnam Singh, a narcotic addict, was caught by the police and devotees when he rushed to Amritanandamayi’s seat while the latter was giving darshan to people in her math in Vallikkavu. The attempt to nab Satnam resulted in a commotion. He was taken into police custody and charged for trying to attack Amritanandamayi. A local court remanded him and then he was taken to a government mental hospital in Thiruvananthapuram. On the same night, the Kerala home minister, Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, visited the ashram and talked to Amritanandamayi.

On August 4 night, mental hospital authorities took Satnam to Thirvuvananathapuram Medical College as his health deteriorated. His death was confirmed late in night.

Vimal Kishore told reporters on August 5 that there were no marks on Satnam’s body when he met the latter in police custody a few days ago. At that time he was clad in underwears. “Today when I saw his body, there were more than 30 injury marks on his body. The marks included marks of torture with a rod,” Vimal Kishore said. Vimal sought the intervention of the state government and the National Human Rights Commission in the matter.

The local police registered a case of unnatural death and the district administration sought full report from the superintendent of the mental hospital and health authorities. 

In the meanwhile, more than 30 injury marks were found on the body after Medical College Hospital made an inquest. The home minister said he was not in a position to react until the autopsy report came.

CHIEF WHIP

& CHIEF MINISTER

Kerala is these days witnessing a filthy play of dirty linen being thrown upon one another, and this may cause a severe crisis for the Congress led United Democratic Front which has only a narrow majority. When four young legislators threatened to resign, they got unexpected support from prominent leaders in the Congress.

These MLAS are V D Satheeshan, T N Prathapan, Hibi Eden and V T Balram who are in a war against the government’s chief whip, P C George of the Kerala Congress. These MLAs severely criticised P C George for his intervention in the government’s move to take over the Nelliayamapathi plantation in Palakkad. In the last assembly session too, P C George and forest minister K B Ganesh Kumar had had a war of words after the government decided to take over certain estates in Nelliyampathi for violating the lease agreement. When the forest minister alleged that George was arguing for the land mafia, the chief whip retaliated that the minister was hand in glove with the opposition and claimed that his stand was in favour of farmers in Nelliyampathi. George once rebuked Ganesh Kumar in a cabinet meeting also, in front of ministers and senior officials. These incidents created a ruckus in UDF and many leaders started criticising the chief minister for protecting the chief whip.

This embroil inside the UDF took a dramatic turn when the four young legislators entered the scene, daring to attack Oommen Chandi too for shielding George and sending a clear message that they were not ready to tolerated George. The latter’s casteist remarks also provoked these MLAs. KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala’s statement praising P C George as an asset for the UDF also created much chaos in the UDF as well as Congress.

This declaration of an open war against the chief whip came on the eve of a major revamp in the state Congress unit, reflecting the resentment spreading among Congress legislators. "Congress MLAs are no whipping boys. There will be grave consequences if the party leadership fails to act. Whoever has let loose George must do the needful to leash him,'' Congress MLAs V D Satheesan and Hibi Eden later told reporters.

Reacting to the casteist remarks made by George against T N Prathapan, MLA, they said Chandy and Chennithala should have defended Prathapan against George. "We won't allow Prathapan to be targeted. We're all with him,'' Satheesan said. ''More than George's remarks, who habitually stirs up controversies by his unsavoury utterances, it was the comments of Chandy and Chennithala that pained us," he added.

In another development, these four MLAs along with other MLAs from various UDF constituents visited the Nelliyampathi estates on August 6 to gauze the actual situation. The UDF has constituted a subcommittee to study the Nelliyampathi issue, and Oommen Chandy and Ramesh Chennithala termed this visit as a gross violation of discipline. 

In a surprising move, senior Congress leader and UDF subcommittee’s convenor M M Hassan announced his resignation. In a press conference in Delhi on August 5, Hassan said that UDF MLAs’ visit to Nelliyampathi violated the “coalition dharma.” It is believed that this move was to discourage the dissident MLAs from further extreme moves. Acknowledging the mounting resentment within the party, Chennithala quickly reacted and said the issue would be discussed in the UDF.

JAYARAJAN ARRESTED,

PROTESTS ERUPTS

On August 1, setting an unhealthy precedence of harassing the political opponents to keep the Muslim League in good humour, the UDF government of Kerala got arrested P Jayarajan, secretary of the CPI(M)’s Kannur district committee, in regard to the death of Shukkur, a Muslim Youth League worker. The arrest occurred when Jayarajan reached the district police chief’s office to make his deposition.

There was then a dawn to dusk hartal the next day, at the CPI(M)’s call, with the people registering protest against the UDF government’s politics of vendetta.

A case was registered against P Jayarajan under the Section 118 of the Indian Penal Code, and the Chief Judicial First Class Magistrate of Kannur remanded him for 14 days. When the police took Jayarajan to the Kannur Central Jail, thousands of people rushed out into the streets to protest. Even the home minister had to face the people’s ire at Chavara in Kollam district. Hh had to take shelter in a police station to escape the popular anger protest.

In Kannur, the police unleashed a brutal attack on CPI(M) workers. Kannur area secretary of CPI(M), Chandran, suffered lethal lathi blows and was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit in AKG Hospital, Kannur. Media persons were not spared either. Various centres in Kannur witnessed atrocious police attacks. Many party offices were also attacked. In the meanwhile, the state government requested the centre to provide the CRPF assistance.

The police charge is that P Jayarajan concealed the fact about the killing, but the police have failed to prove his involvement in the murder or criminal conspiracy. Previously, Jayarajan had appeared thrice before the police.

MUSLIM LEAGUE

GOONDAISM

On August 2, goons of the Indian Union Muslim League, along with the police, resorted to brutal attacks against opponents in various parts of the state when the people were engaged in observation of the hartal against P Jayarajan’s arrest. These goons even killed a DYFI leader in Uduama in Kasargode district.

T Manoj(24), president of the DYFI’s Pallikkara Keekanam unit, fell victim to Muslim League hooliganism when its goons kicked on his chest till his death. District SFI’s joint secretary A V Shivaprasad and the CPI(M)’s Thachangad local committee secretary M Karunakaran were also injured in the attack. The LDF then called for a dawn to dusk hartal in Kasargode district on August 3.

This was the third murder committed by the Muslim League in the last two months. On June 10, League workers had killed two brothers at Areacode in Malappuram district.

The day of the hartal paralysed all life in the state. Vehicles were off the road. Offices, shops and industrial units were kept closed. In Thiruvananthapuram, CPI(M) workers picketed at the Secretariat. Party workers took out hold protest marches in every local centre.

The police hurled grenades against the protestors in Kasargode and Kannur.

KASARGODE

PARALYSED

On August 3, the people of Kasargode, the northern most district of Kerala, observed in protest a hartal at the call of the Left  Democratic Front (LDF) against the killing of DYFI leader Manoj. As for the reason of death as revealed in the post mortem report, the assessment by forensic surgeons showed that the death was due to injuries. Thus the concerted campaign of UDF leaders with the help of right wing media once again proved wrong.

The UDF leader had been telling that Manoj died due to heart attack in a scuffle between the CPI(M) and the Muslim League workers. The complaints about the shifting of post mortem process from Kasargode district hospital to Kozhikode Medical College also caused protest.

The hartal left the whole of Kasargode district paralysed. There were protest marches in every corner of the district against the brutal killing of the youth leader a day before.