AYUSH ANAND & VAIBHAV CHADHA
Date of Attack: May 20, 2016
Place of attack: House of Preman, Kuttydyi Panchayat, Nadapuram Mandal, Vadakkara, Kozhikode district.
Name of Victim: VV Mani (Ex-BJP Kuttydyi Panchayat local secretary, swayamsewak), Preman (Ex-BMS office secretary) and Ajeesh (Brother of Anoop, Thayyam artist, swayamsewak).
Incident: The attack happened at around 10 am on the house of Preman while he was distributing prasadam of Sabrimala temple to his friends. This place is surrounded by thick mountain forests and also notorious for the illegal mining. At that time, roughly 150 people lead by CPM leaders attacked the place with country-made bombs, swords, iron rods etc.
VV Mani told us that while he was going to Preman’s house, he saw a mob coming from up the hills. At that time he had no clue that they hurl bombs towards him. A bomb hit a friend of Mani, hence to save his friend Mani pushed him away but the bomb exploded beneath his right leg. He immediately felled down and collapsed. This severe injury later resulted in amputation of his right leg. Then they threw another bomb towards the head of a person but fortunately it missed the target and exploded on the wall of a house.
Then the poplin the mob inflicted a deep injury on Preman’s right leg with the sword and collected blood oozing out from this wound in a bucket. The attackers had come with a full bucket of bombs. The CPM goons threatened that all the BJP/RSS supporters would be treated similarly if they did not stop working for their organisations. Thereafter, they started attacking the house and ransacked it from inside breaking the doors and windows.
Preman told us that after this mayhem, the group went to the house of OP Babu (23), a swayamsewak, who had been killed by CPM members in the year 1997, at his house. OP Babu was also a relative of VV Mani. CPM goons then showed the family members of OP Babu the bucket of bomb, weapons and the blood collected from Preman’ wounds. They told the family to learn a lesson and stop working immediately for the BJP/RSS.
After this hour long horror episode they comfortably went up to the mountain hills from where they came.
Reason behind the attack: The CPM for the first time lost the Assembly election from this area and got fewer votes from the Kottyadil Mandal. LDF candidate KK Lathika, wife of P Mohan Master, CPM Kozhikode district secretary, lost the election and UDF’s P Abdullah won the election. The BJP vote share increased from 6,000 to 12,000 votes. The LDF candidate was defeated for the first time by 1,800 votes in the area. At the day of declaration of results, CPM goons rounded the area and marked their target which they executed with full planning the very next day.
Behind the marking of Preman’s house, there is another story: An incidence of violence on polling day, May 16, 2016. On this day, upon the completion of voting hour at around 5 pm, on booths number 80 and 81, Nittor Lower Primary School, CPM polling agents started beating up BJP workers and agents present at that polling station, with iron rods and other hand-held weaponries. Two BJP workers Udyan (Taluk Vidyarthi Pramukh) & Sreejith (Kunnumal Mandak Karyawah), who were on poll duty, were seriously injured in this attack. VV Mani had taken them to the hospital and helped in filing the FIR against the culprits. So, from that day CPM cadres marked Mani and his friends for revenge.
In the same series of violence, CPM goons attacked the house of hospitalised Udyan on May 19, when they were convinced that they are going to win the State Assembly election. CPM goons went inside Udyan’s house in his absence, misbehaved with his 30-year old sister and dragged her by grabbing her hair, from inside the house to the road. Family members of Udayan informed the police, but the police did act. According to Mani and Preman, they were the same goons who on the very next day attacked them with bombs and swords.
On May 21, 2016, they again hurled two bombs at the house next to the Preman; they also attacked a CPM worker’s house from the outside to implicate BJP workers. Sitting MLA of the UDF, P Abdullah, visited the attack site and condemned the CPM’s violence.
Culprit: CPM workers. Total 16 arrests have been so far reported which is linked with these violence. The mastermind of all four attacks was AM Ashokan, CPM branch secretary, Nittor village, Kuttyadi Panchayat and Vikash, a CPM worker/local criminal on which Kerala preventive detention law, KAPA, had been invoked in the past. Vikash is also accused of attacking several Congress and IUML’s party workers. These two accused were present on all the four attack sites. The police has not arrested the main accused as it may again have to invoke KAPA on them. Hence they are still roaming free while the other 16 CPM workers, who have been arrested, have been released on bail.
The other members of the local community who are sympathisers and voters of BJP are also facing several problems only because of the ideology they support. According to them, P Vijayan, a local CPM heavyweight, is the main problem for them. Local and daily workers are now getting no work from anywhere only because they voted for the BJP. They are being isolated from the main society as CPM goons threaten anyone who gives them work.