The police have registered a case against Thalassery MLA A.N. Shamseer and Kannur district panchayat vice president P.P. Divya, both leaders of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI), on charges of abetting the suicide bid of one of the Dalit siblings in Kannur district, who were arrested last week on charge of attacking a CPI(M) activist.
Thalassery Deputy Superintendent of Police Saju Paul said here on Tuesday that both of them had been charged with Section 109 (punishment of abetment if the act abetted is committed in consequence and where no express provision is made for its punishment) read with 309 (attempt to commit suicide) of the Indian Penal Code.
A case was also registered against Anjana on the charge of attempting to commit suicide, he said.
Statement recorded
The case against Mr. Shamseer and Ms. Divya was on the basis of a recorded statement given by Anjana to the Kannur Vanita Cell circle inspector P. Kamalakshi, who had visited her at the Indira Gandhi Cooperative Hospital at Thalassery on Monday.
The police had also obtained legal opinion before proceeding with the charges, Kori Sanjaykumar Gurudin, Kannur SP, said.
The Dalit woman had told the woman police officer that verbal abuses and insults by the DYFI leaders during a panel discussion on a private TV channel on Saturday night had apparently drove her to end her life.
Anjana and her older sister Akhila, daughters of N. Rajan, a local leader of the Congress, were arrested last week on a charge of assaulting a CPI(M) worker inside the local CPI(M) office at Kuttimakkool and were remanded in jail. Akhila went to jail with her 18-month-old child. Now they are out on bail.
In a related development, National Commission for Scheduled Castes (Thiruvananthapuram and Lakshadweep) Director P. Girija who recorded the statements of the victim on Tuesday said that the Dalit women had been facing insults and directed the police to provide adequate protection to the family.
However, the Kerala State Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, led by chairperson P.N. Vijayakumar, told journalists that Anjana had not given a statement against the DYFI leaders, but she had said that the sisters had been disturbed after they had been jailed.
Report submitted
Meanwhile, Kannur Collector P. Bala Kiran, who visited Anjana at the hospital, gave a report about the incidents to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and the State government.
“The commission had asked the district administration to take necessary steps to repair the house of the Dalit family,” he said.