Rape, murder in Cong office in Kerala; minister’s PA among 2 arrested

mangaloretoday.com

Malappuram, Kerala, Feb 11: Two local Congress leaders including a senior Congress minister’s personal assistant were arrested on Monday for the rape and murder of a woman in the party block office in Nilambur, Malappuram district.

The post-mortem report which was out Tuesday morning said the victim, a sweeper in the Congress office, was brutally raped since her private parts bore severe injuries.

 

Thirty-eight-year-old Biju Nair , the personal assistant of Aryadan Muhammed , the local MLA and Power Minister, and K. Shamsudeen were the two persons arrested. With the Perinthalmanna DSP forming a team for further investigations on Tuesday, Muhammed said he welcomed any investigation into the incident. The body of the victim, C. Radha (49), was fished out on Monday from a pond located in the homestead of another local Congress leader. The body was found in a sack.

The murder came to light on the day the Congress high command anointed VM Sudheeran, the party’s Mr Clean, as the new president of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee.

Police said Radha had gone missing since February 5.  Following a complaint from her brother, the local police registered a case and initiated investigation.  By evening, the two suspects were arrested and confessed to their crime.

Police got information on Monday that the body was found in a pond. According to police, the murder took place on February when the woman came for sweeping the office premises and her corpse was taken to the pond by an autorickshaw.

As regards the motive for the crime, police said the victim could have been killed since she used to blackmail Nair of threatening to make public his illicit relations with another woman. But the victim’s brother Bhaskaran charged that more important persons were involved and that Nair owned up the crime to protect someone else.

CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan demanded a comprehensive inquiry into the murder as many prominent Congress leaders too were involved in the case.  "The new KPCC President will take note and serious action. Especially since the personal assistant of senior Congress minister is involved," he said.

In Kerala, each minister’s personal staff members are employed without any norms since they are based on the recommendation of either the minister or party members.

Many personal staff members of Congress minister’s including Chief Minister Ommen Chandy were removed due to impropriety in 2013. Chandy’s personal staff members Tenny Joppan and Gireesh Kumar were removed following allegations of sexual abuse and impropriety against them whereas his former gunman Salim Raj was terminated following his involvement in fraud connected with land deals and solar scam.

Tenny Joppan was removed from Chandy’s service as he maintained close links with Solar scam accused Saritha S. Nair and was instrumental in connecting the Chief Minister’s office to the fraud.

The number of personal staff that a minister can have in the state is more than what a Union minister is eligible to have in his team. A minister in Kerala can appoint 30 staff in Kerala where as in the Centre, it’s just 15. The personal staff is eligible for pension after two years and many politicians use this opportunity to appoint even their relatives as personal staff. During LDF rule, Health Minister PK Sreemathi had even appointed her daughter-in-law as her personal staff. She was forced to quit when it turned into a controversy.

RTI activist DB Binu said, "There should be a minimum qualification for appointing personal staff member to a minister. The appointment should be through Public Service Commission. I have got several documents through RTI that shows that many personal staff members who joined service as driver or peon were later promoted to bigger posts. Some of them haven’t even passed Class 10."