The Congress seems to have received a much-needed reprieve after Ramakrishnan, the husband of Indira Ramakrishnan who was trampled to death by a tusker at Kanjiraveli in Idukki district in Kerala, confirmed that the party had taken his permission before staging a protest at Kothamangalam town with his wife’s body on March 4.
The CPI(M), led by Industries Minister P. Rajeeve, had lashed out at the Congress accusing the party of forcibly taking away the body from the Kothamangalam Taluk Hospital in the middle of inquest proceedings without taking the permission of the mourning family members. The Congress, however, had shot down the allegation, claiming that they had indeed taken the permission.
Speaking to the media on March 5 morning, Mr. Ramakrishnan confirmed the Congress’ position. “The body was not forcibly taken away for the protest but only after taking permission from me and my son after convincing us that this alone would ensure prompt intervention by the State government. The Ministers and the government intervened promptly and did the needful and we have no complaint (about the government intervention),” he told mediapersons ahead of the funeral.
Discordant note
However, the victim’s brother, Suresh, struck a discordant note. He said that there was “no point” in saying that the permission of the mourning family members was taken considering their “emotional state” at the time.
Congress legislator Mathew Kuzhalnadan reiterated that he took “complete responsibility” for taking the body for the protest, which, he repeated, was done with the permission of the family of the victim.
He said that Mr. Suresh had participated in the Congress protest all along and was, in fact, the “most vociferous” against the police move to reclaim the body on March 4 afternoon.
“I don’t know, perhaps he was pressured. But the crucial thing is that I have shared with the father and the son of the victim about the public sentiments for a protest with the body and they give us the permission as they did not want a similar fate to befall anyone else,” said Mr. Kuzhalnadan.
Mr. Kuzhalnadan and Ernakulam District Congress Committee (DCC) president Mohammed Shiyas were arrested by the Ernakulam rural police on Monday midnight on charges including under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Section 297 (causing indignity to human corpse). They were released on interim bail around 3 a.m on March 5.
