Summons served on Minister

Minister for Welfare of Scheduled Tribes and Youth Affairs P.K. Jayalakshmi was on Tuesday issued summons to appear before the Mananthavadi First Class Judicial Magistrate Court (II) on December 28.

C. Deepu, Judicial First Class Magistrate, issued the summons on Tuesday on a private complaint filed against the Minister by K.P. Jeevan, Sulthan Bathery taluk secretary of the Democratic Youth Federation of India.

Mr. Jeevan alleged that Ms. Jayalakshmi had misrepresented facts about her education qualification while filing nomination papers for the 2011 Assembly election and falsified election accounts.

The Minister had in her election affidavit stated that she graduated in English from Kannur University in 2004 and had Rs.2,560 in her account with the Mananthavady branch of the State Bank of India.

Mr. Jeevan alleged that she had not passed in her degree examination. Though she had stated in her affidavit that she had only Rs.2,560 in her account, the next day she had got Rs.10 lakh in the account from anonymous sources.

Ms. Jayalakshmi withdrew the amount and spent it in two weeks during the poll campaign but did not account it in her election expenditure statement.

Moreover, in her election expenditure statement, accompanied by an affidavit, she had stated that her election committee had spent Rs.3.91 lakh for the election and she had not spent any amount from her pocket.

The court prima facie found a case against the Minister as per Section 125(a) (giving false statement or false affidavit) of the Representation of People Act and Section 171 (I) (falsification of election account) of the Indian Penal Code after examining the manager of the SBI branch and the Deputy Collector (Election). Advocate C.S. Hrithwik appeared for Mr. Jeevan.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) district committee demanded the resignation of the Minister. C.K.S. Saseendran, district secretary, said the Minister had no right to continue in office as she had violated the Representation of People Act.