The five-day long indefinite fast by Mahija, Avishna and other members of Jishnu Pranoy’s family, could be brought to an end only after the government promised the family that it would consider initiating action against the police personnel if any of them were found to have committed excesses while removing them from before the police headquarters.
The government was under pressure from the CPI(M) Central leadership to find a solution to the stalemate. Party general secretary Sitaram Yechury had told the State party leadership to explore ways to bring the agitation to an end. The first sign that the agitation would end on Sunday itself was given with CPI State secretary Kanam Rajendran, who had been sniping at the government for its handling of the family’s protest, assuming the role of mediator and reaching the medical college hospital around Sunday noon. He spoke to his CPI(M) counterpart Kodiyeri Balakrishnan from the hospital and told reporters that a solution would be found very quickly.
Prosecutor’s visit
Adding pace to the process came reports about the arrest of N. Sakthivel, vice principal of the Nehru College of Engineering and Research Centre at Pambadi, accused of having abetted the suicide of Jishnu, from a relative’s farmhouse at Annur near Coimbatore. By evening, C.P. Udayabhanu, special prosecutor in the Jishnu death case, and State Attorney K.V. Sohan came on the scene and spent more than three hours with the family. Topping the efforts of the government to find solution came Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s telephone call to Ms. Mahija, promising her that all their demands would be met without fail. During the following one hour, a 10-point agreement was prepared and signed by the two sides.
A key factor
One key element of the agreement was that the government would withdraw the conspiracy charges against M. Shajarkhan and his wife Mini, both workers of the Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI). The family told the government’s interlocutors that they had no knowledge about the arrival of K.M. Shajahan and Himavalbhadrananda at the entrance to the police headquarters, implying that there was no direct contact between them and the two.
