The brutal rape and murder of a Dalit woman, a law student, in Kerala on April 28, the mysterious police apathy suspected in the probe into it for four long days and their failure to identify the culprit(s) even after a week have become hot political issues in the State where a crucial Assembly election is to take place in less than two weeks.
The developments on Wednesday in Perumbavoor in Ernakulam district where the 29-year-old woman was raped and killed made it amply clear that Congress Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and his Government had been pushed to a defenseless situation as they failed to provide even a plausible explanation for the failures of its machineries in handling the case.
“The culprit will be brought to book at the earliest” was the only statement Chandy could offer after he visited the victim’s mother at the Taluk Hospital in Perumbavoor on Wednesday even as the Opposition intensified its attack against him and his scam-ridden Government with the Maoist tactic of hitting the enemy hard when he is weak.
Intense protests were staged on Wednesday by almost a dozen organisations at the hospital premises and the office of the Deputy Superintendent of Police, the base for the probe into the incident, in Perumbavoor demanding immediate arrest of the culprit(s) and justice for the victim and attacking the Government and the police for their alleged inefficiency.
“Things like this are happening here only because the State is being ruled by an inefficient Chief Minister. Will something like this happen if there is an efficient GovernmentIJ” asked Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan, star campaigner of the CPI(M)-led lDF in the Assembly poll, after visiting the victim’s mother minutes after Chandy left.
The frustration of the Congress party played out itself on the courtyard of the hospital on Wednesday when mediamen confronted the Chief Minister. As Chandy struggled hard to answer the newsmen’s discomforting questions, the Youth Congress activists accompanying him physically pounced on them asking them to stop the quizzing.
Observers say that the Perumbavoor incident is already causing big problems for the Congress and the UDF, which have so far been struggling to ward off the Opposition attacks over the Government’s track record of alleged corruption, immoral connections and nepotism with claims of implementing big development projects and an anti-liquor policy.