Dalit women jailed for 'beating up CPI-M men' get bail

A court here in Kerala on Saturday granted bail to two Dalit women who were sent to jail on Friday for "trespassing into Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) office and beating up two party men".

The Congress party, however, accused the ruling party of misusing power to send the two Dalit women -- Akhila, 30, and her 25-year-old sister Anjana -- to jail on false charges.

"The conditional bail has been given to the women and every Saturday, they have to report before the probe official and have to surrender their passport," the counsel for the two women told reporters here.

On Friday, Thalaserry Police presented Akhila and Anjana before a court that sent the two siblings and Akhila's 18-month-old baby to jail.

This case has by now drawn national attention with the media taking it up in a big way and the National Commission for Scheduled Caste looking into it as well.

"This is the biggest joke, such a thing never happened... and that too, two hapless young women beating up CPI-M men at their office. These are absolutely ridiculous and baseless allegations," the Congress party's Kerala unit president V.M. Sudheeran said while addressing a party function in Thiruvananthapuram.

Later, addressing reporters in Thiruvananthapuram, Sudheeran said the officials who acted at the behest of the CPI-M leaders should be taken to task for this act.

Minister for Culture and SC/ST A.K. Balan told reporters in Delhi that they will look into the matter and see if anything wrong was done.

CPI-M state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said "this is the ploy of the Congress party to see that through all this, they can get into the good books of the community by targeting us".

"The bail application could have been moved on Friday, but none of the Congress people wanted to do so," said Balakrishnan.

Akhila and Anjana are daughters of Congress leader N. Rajan and his family has come under frequent fire from the CPI-M leaders after he contested last year's local body election against a top CPI-M leader at Thalaserry.

"They went to the CPI-M office to plead with those present there to leave them alone and not make them a subject of ridicule as they have been mentally harassed for long," said Kannur district Congress president K. Surendran.

CPI-M legislator A.M. Shamsheer, who represents Thalaserry constituency, said the two women trespassed into their party office and the law took its course.

--IANS

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