Vigil to raise issue of tainted Kerala Minister

at national level

Vigil India Movement has conveyed to the Governor and Chief Minister of Kerala its intention to mobilize public opinion at the national level if the State’s political and constitutional machinery fails to address squarely the issue of atrocities against women, which is on the increase.

    In separate letters addressed to them, B. R. P. Bhaskar, a member of the Board of Trustees of Vigil India Movement, said, “We are deeply disturbed by the State Government’s lackadaisical response to the revelation by Rejina, a key witness in the Kozhikode icecream parlour sex racket case, before television cameras that Industries Minister P. K. Kunhalikutty had sexually assaulted her thrice when she was a minor and that she had given false testimony in court after her family was bribed. The minister’s name has figured in media reports on some other sex rackets too.”

   He regretted that the Chief Minister had chosen to cast doubts on Rejina’s testimony, forgetting that police had relied upon her earlier statement to drop Kunhalikutty from the case. He added, “When a key witness makes contradictory statements in a case that is still pending, the investigating machinery has a duty to ascertain which of the statements is true. How can the police be relied upon to discharge this duty when the Chief Minister, who is the Home Minister, himself publicly discredits her statements?”      <o:p></o:p>

    Besides the Opposition, women’s groups like the Kerala Sthree Vedi and other civil society organizations had demanded the tainted minister’s resignation to facilitate a free and fair investigation. He has responded by declaring he would resign only if the leader of his party, Shihab Thangal, asked him to do so. This was an affront to the authority of constitutional functionaries like the Governor and the Chief Minister.

 Background

Moozhikkal Rejina, a young housewife, has alleged that Kunhalikutty, sexually assaulted her thrice a decade ago, when she was a minor. She further alleged that she gave a false testimony before a magistrate as her family was bribed.

    The case first hit the headlines in August 1997 when the Kozhikode-based Anweshi Women’s Counselling Centre, led by K. Ajitha, blew the whistle.  Ajitha said Kunhalikutty had committed the crime when he was a minister in the Congress-led 1991-1996 government.<o:p></o:p>

    The then Kozhikode commissioner of police, Neera Rawat, recorded the statements of five victims, including Rejina, which stated that Kunhalikutty, his driver and many others had sexually assaulted them. Rejina was then working as waitress at an Ice Cream Parlour. Sreedevi, the owner of the parlour, is said to have collected huge sums from customers though Rejina and the other girls received only a pittance for their “services”.

    Rejina told TV channels she had remained silent all these years as a relative of the minister was paying money to her family. She claimed he had also ‘arranged’ her husband.

November 7, 2004