Kerala’s CPM denies clearing lawmaker of misconduct

Thiruvananthapuram: The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) on Saturday denied giving a “clean chit” to one of its legislators who was accused of misconduct towards a woman member of the party.

The party had formed a commission to look into the matter with P.K. Sreemathi, the CPM’s Lok Sabha member for Kannur, as one of the two members of the commission.

The Kerala unit of the CPM on November 26 suspended the Shornur Assembly constituency legislator P.K. Sasi for six months from its primary membership for misbehaving towards the woman.

Talking to the media in Delhi, Sreemathi rubbished the report that the party had cleared Sasi of the charges.

“I don’t know what report of the commission you [media] are referring to, our report never came out. We have taken action against Sasi,” Sreemathi said.

However, the report that has now found its way to the media states that the woman’s complaint to the party came eight months after the incident.

The woman, in her complaint, had accused Sasi of misbehaving towards her at the party office around 11am on the day of the incident.

But the commission report has its doubts on the woman’s claims as the party office is crowded at that time of the day and such an incident could not have taken place without any witnesses.

The report also mentions that the commission believes the complaint may have other motives, as Sasi has mentioned that there is a conspiracy against him.

It concludes by saying though there is no evidence of any kind of misbehaviour by Sasi, he has been suspended as he did not conduct himself in a dignified manner befitting the image of the party.

The woman member had to write to party General Secretary Sitaram Yechury after her August complaint to the state leadership did not yield action.

In November, she wrote to Yechury that she had lost faith in the state leadership as even after three months there has been no action against Sasi.

And it was after this the party leadership took cognisance of the report and suspended Sasi for six months.

This commission report has come the same day the central leadership of the party is meeting in Delhi to take forward the decision of the state committee which decided to suspend Sasi for six months.