A sex scandal has erupted in Kerala’s ruling CPI(M) with a woman leader of its youth wing, DYFI, lodging a complaint with the party leadership against PK Sasi, party MlA from Shoranur, accusing him of trying to sexually abuse her.
State CPI(M) secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said that the party had already started looking into a complaint the young woman, a member of the DYFI’s Palakkad district committee, had lodged with him three weeks ago but Opposition parties demanded the MlA’s resignation and police action against him and those who had failed to report the matter to the police.
Asked about the woman’s complaint against Sasi, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said in New Delhi, “It has been sent there (to the party’s Kerala leadership). They will be looking into it.” The woman leader had e-mailed her complaint to Yechury the other day after other central leaders and the Kerala leadership had failed to respond to her complaint.
“I had received the complaint three weeks ago. We have begun taking action on it,” said Kodiyeri in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday. Asked whether the complaint would be forwarded to the police, “The party is taking action on the basis of a complaint it has received. If it was a complaint for the police, (the woman) would have lodged it with them.”
The CPI(M)’s State committee has reportedly constituted a two-member committee of the secretariat to look into the young woman’s complaint. The members of the panel are central committee members PK Sreemathy MP and State Culture Minister AK Balan. The committee has been instructed to file its report in a month’s time.
In her complaint, the DYFI leader had accused Sasi, also a member of the CPI(M)’s district committee and district secretariat in Palakkad, of trying to abuse her sexually at the party’s Mannarkad area committee office. She also charged him with continuing the harassment for over a year and with making lewd remarks to her over the phone.
The young woman had lodged her complaint first on August 14 with party Politbureau member Brinda Karat, State secretary Kodiyeri and some prominent leaders in the party’s State secretariat. However, no action was taken on the complaint and therefore she e-mailed her complaint to the party’s general secretary.
As per reports, there had been efforts to hush up the issue. The woman was reportedly offered Rs 1 crore and a top position in the DYFI to withdraw her complaint. Also, the woman had attached the voice records of the phone conversations of Sasi with her in which he had allegedly made immoral remarks and of the other offers made to her for hushing up the issue.
Rejecting the charge against him totally, Sasi said in Palakkad on Tuesday, “I have no knowledge about such a complaint. I came to know of it from the media. I have done nothing wrong. There are many people who want to destroy me politically. These people might be adopting certain vicious ways to defeat me. There is a well-planned conspiracy behind it.”
CPI(M)’s Palakkad district secretary CK Rajendran said he had not come across any such complaint against Sasi but sources said that the issue had become a huge embarrassment for the district leadership. However, instead of ensuring justice to the victim of the alleged sexual harassment, the district leadership had reportedly been trying to settle the issue.
Sasi is perhaps the third senior CPI(M) leader to face charges of sexual harassment and immoral conduct. P Sasi, former Kannur district secretary and one of its most powerful leaders at that time, on the charge of sexually harassing a woman employee of the party organ, Deshabhimani, a Malayalam daily.
However, he returned to the party last June after a court gave him clean chit. On August 1, 2011, the CPI(M) had removed senior leader Gopi Kottamurikkal as its Ernakulam district secretary following a scandal relating to the allegation that he had used the party’s office premises for immoral acts.
Meanwhile, the MlA and the CPI(M) came under severe criticisms from Opposition parties. State BJP president PS Sreedharan Pillai said legal action under the Criminal Procedure Code should be initiated against the CPI(M) leaders including Brinda Karat who had allegedly tried to settle the issue instead of handing over the woman’s complaint to the police.
“It is not up to the CPI(M) to take decision on sex abuse cases. If the party takes action, it is its internal matter. The complaint should have been handed over to the police,” said State BJP general secretary K Surendran.
While State Woman’s Congress president lathika Subhash demanded the MlA’s resignation, Youth Congress leader Dean Kuriakose sought Sasi’s arrest.