Author: John Mary
Publication: Telegraph
Date: October 14, 2004
URL: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1041014/asp/nation/story_3880412.asp?headline=Sex~scandal~heat~on~CPM~+]~-->
A sex scandal that has already claimed
a whole family and left a teenage mother traumatised has exploded on the
CPM in Kerala just months before the party's scheduled state conference
in February.
Although the focus is on key accused
Latha Nair, a middle-aged Gulf-returned woman now in custody, suspicions
are centred on the involvement of a top CPM leader in sexually abusing
the girl who turned 18 a few weeks ago.
Forced into prostitution and pornography
on the promise of plum roles in TV soaps, the teenager from Kiliroor in
Kumarakom near Kottayam, about 160 km from capital Thiruvananthapuram,
gave birth to a girl on August 15 after a futile attempt at abortion. She
has been in hospital since.
Tongues started wagging after CPM
leaders made a beeline to the private hospital to see the girl. Local BJP
leaders, who blew the lid off the scandal, yesterday presented the girl's
father, C.. Surendran, at a news conference in Kottayam, the epicentre
of the racket and the place chief minister Oommen Chandy hails from.
"All I can say is that the VIPs
who visited my child in hospital were CPM leaders. She suffered a setback
after the visits, though I am not able to pinpoint the particular VIP,"
Surendran said.
BJP state committee member Radhakrishna
Menon said the girl was being threatened and should be shifted to a hospital
with more facilities and provided police protection.
CPM politburo member and Opposition
leader V.S. Achuthanandan shot off a letter to the Congress-led government
calling for a probe into what had led to the further traumatisation of
the girl and who was responsible for it.
Achuthanandan, who also visited
the hospital, quoted a doctor telling him that the girl had been upset
by a VIP's visit.
Trying to straighten the record,
MLA P.K. Sreemathy, a leader of the pro-CPM All-India Democratic Women's
Association, visited the hospital. She said the doctor was speaking out
of concern for the girl who ran the risk of getting an infection from visits
by strangers. CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan also rebutted Achuthanandan's
version.
State Congress vice-president A.C.
Jose has called for an impartial probe. "CPM leaders," he alleged, "are
involved in the scandal." The chief minister, too, stepped in, saying the
government would get to the bottom of the racket, which came to light after
the suicide by the Nampoothiry family in Kaviyoor, Pathanamthitta, 130
km from the capital, in the last week of September.
Latha had allegedly lured Nampoothiry's
daughter Anagha with the promise of a career in television. The priest,
his wife and three children ended their lives after reports of the family's
association with Latha appeared in the local press.
Latha, who surrendered before a
magistrate yesterday, has been remanded in police custody till October
20. Also in the police net is her associate Manoj, a bus conductor.
The high court, which has rapped
police for messing up the case, has sealed the case diary. The case has
since been brought under direct supervision of DIG (central range) R. Sreelekha,
who is based in Kochi.
