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CPM drops Jayachandran from party panels in Kerala; daughter calls it ‘eyewash’
PS Jayachandran, who was removed from Kerala CPM’s party posts in Peroorkada, has claimed that he gave away his daughter’s child to the state’s child welfare committee with his daughter’s written approval. Anupama said she was made to sign the document under duress.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala’s ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Wednesday removed PS Jayachandran from all party posts and committees after he was accused of kidnapping his daughter’s newborn child and later handing it over to the state council for child welfare-run orphanage for adoption. The party has also decided to conduct an inquiry into the case.
Jayachandran was a Peroorkada local committee member and a senior leader of the party trade union wing Centre for Indian Trade Unions.
A party leader said the decision to strip Jayachandran was taken by the local committee in Peroorkada on the direction of the district committee.
Former student activist Anupama S Chandran, who struggled to get the party to act against her father for months, said the belated move is an eyewash and demanded a state committee-level probe the missing child’s case.
“Nothing will emerge if the case is investigated by the local committee. I want a high-level inquiry, and women leaders should be part of it,” she said in state capital Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday. Jayachandran was not available for comment. Earlier, he said the party was aware of everything, but it disowned him when issue took the national stage.
A senior CPM leader, who did not want to be quoted, said further action will be taken against Jayachandran and officials of the child welfare committee, who allegedly colluded with him in the adoption.
A Thiruvananthapuram court will hear the anticipatory bail petitions filed by Jayachandran and five others on Thursday.
In a police complaint filed last week, Anupama S Chandran alleged that her father took away her child born in October last year and handed over the newborn to a state child welfare council-run orphanage. She alleged the child was reportedly given to a family from Andhra Pradesh in violation of adoption rules.
But Jayachandran said he sent the baby to the government-run children’s home in Thiruvananthapuram with his daughter’s consent and contended that his daughter also signed a legal document to this effect. His daughter rebutted him, insisting that she was forced to sign the document.
Chandran’s one-day fast before the state secretariat on Saturday for her child attracted national attention. Many senior leaders of the CPM including politburo members Brinda Karat and MA Baby decried inaction in her case. Despite the senior leaders’ intervention, the party failed to take action against him. The issue also figured prominently in the state assembly. Opposition leader V D Satheesan termed it an “honour kidnapping” while state health minister Veena George insisted that all procedures were followed when the baby was given for adoption. A family court has stayed the baby’s adoption till Nov 1.
