Relatives of TJ Joseph, the Malayalam professor whose right hand was chopped off by Muslim extremists on July 4, 2010, are accusing the Newman’s College management controlled by Kothamangalam diocese of Kerala’s Catholic Church of pushing his wife Salomi (48) into committing suicide by refusing to reinstate him in service.
Salomi was found hanging from the ventilator of the bathroom in their house on Wednesday. The college management had sacked Joseph on September 1, 2010 for preparing a question paper that allegedly blasphemed Prophet Muhammad for which the Muslim extremists had chopped off his right hand at his native place, Muvattupuzha in Ernakulam district.
According to Joseph’s relatives, Salomi had taken the extreme step because of the unbearable anxiety of facing a dark future, generated by the alleged refusal of the management of the college in Thodupuzha, Idukki where Joseph was a Malayalam professor to reinstate him in service before March 31, the date of his formal retirement.
Salomi was suffering from mental disturbances for the past one month because of the uncertainty about the college management’s thinking on reinstating Joseph so that he could receive the retirement benefits which would be of great help to the family which had been in dire financial straits for the past several months due to the professor’s unemployment.
Thodupuzha had seen some law and order problems in 2010 as people from a particular community had protested against the allegedly blasphemous question paper that Joseph had prepared. However, a court last year exonerated him by concluding that there was nothing blasphemous in the test paper.
On Thursday, the diocese said it was sad about Salomi’s death. Fr Francis Alappatt, spokesperson of the Kothamangalam diocese, said that the Church had no problem in reinstating Joseph in service and that discussions in this regard were going on.
“It is a sin to deny bread to anyone, according to Christians. People may even accuse the Kothamangalam diocese of committing that sin and forcing a poor woman into suicide. Some may even be tempted to quote the Shakespearean question on perfumes sweetening a tainted hand,” said a priest who did not want to be identified.
Relatives of Salomi and Joseph on Thursday demanded initiation of a case against the college management for forcing her into committing suicide as she had taken the extreme strep out of depression caused by the non-reinstatement of Joseph in service even after his exoneration by court. Some leading lawyers also said that there should be a case against the management.
“Salomi was in depression for the past several days after she got a hint that the professor may not be reinstated,” said a relative. “Still there was a ray of hope as the management had expressed readiness to reinstate him before March 31. Then it was said that the management had gone back on its word. She could not take it,” he said.
Joseph was sacked when he was undergoing treatment after the chopped hand was re-joined to the stump at a Kochi hospital. Though there were requests for reconsidering the decision, including from then Education minister MA Baby, the Church had refused to relent. Joseph approached the college management with a request to reinstate him before his retirement after the court exonerated him.
Discussions were held on this and an in-principle decision in his favour was taken, it is said. However, the management allegedly went back on its decision later due to the intransigence of its legal advisor.
According to neighbours, the expenses incurred by Joseph’s treatment, son Mithun’s IAS coaching and daughter Aami’s nursing education had hit the family very hard. They said the family had been surviving on the rice the Government distributed at Rs 2 a kilo. Salomi was even thinking of going for work under the NREGA, they said.