The Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] in Kannur on Sunday sought to distance itself from the family, which allegedly ‘harboured’ Nijil Das, a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) worker wanted for the murder of CPI(M) activist K. Haridas.
The police had last week arrested Nijil Das from the house of a local schoolteacher, P. Reshma. The development drew political attention because Ms. Reshma is a neighbour of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. It also did not help the government that unidentified persons had hurled country bombs at the teacher's house following Nijil's arrest and threw her furniture into the compound well.
The police had later booked the teacher and her husband, Prasanth, on the charge of providing refuge to a murder suspect. The Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) had alleged that Ms. Reshma and her family were CPI(M) supporters and were regular fixtures at party functions.
Cong. view
Moreover, Congress said the RSS worker's arrest from a CPI(M) sympathiser's house pointed to the symbiotic relationship between the two organisations. It also accused Mr. Vijayan of being unable to curb the "bomb culture" in his home village.
Responding to the Congress's accusations, CPI(M) Kannur district secretary M. V. Jayarajan said a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawyer had appeared for Ms. Reshma in court. A BJP worker had stood as a surety for her bail. He alleged that the couple had a long association with the BJP, and they had willfully shielded Nijil Das from the law at the behest of the RSS.
Meanwhile, Ms. Reshma has demanded action against Mr. Jayarajan for allegedly vilifying her in public. In a letter to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Ms. Reshma also accused a few other local CPI(M) and DYFI functionaries of posting her family pictures on social media. Ms. Reshma said the action had rendered her and her family a target of vicious social media attacks. Ms. Reshma also complained of suffering humiliation at the hands of the officers who arrested her.
