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Kerala activist ‘Grow’ Vasu acquitted in 2016 case, released from jail
Leader of Opposition VD Satheesan had last week written to chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan demanding that Vasu be freed on account of his age and the simple charges he faces
KOCHI
A court in Kerala on Wednesday acquitted human rights activist Ayinoor Vasu, popularly known as ‘Grow’ Vasu, in a 2016 case registered in connection with a protest he had led against the state government and the police over the killing of Maoist leaders.
The Kunnamangalam Judicial First Class Magistrate Court in Kozhikode district passed the order citing lack of evidence against him in the case.
Vasu, 94, walked out of jail after 46 days during which he had refused to sign a bail bond or pay a nominal fine as part of his protest against the government and the police over alleged extrajudicial killings.
In 2016, following the killing of two Maoist leaders by state police forces in an action that he alleged was extrajudicial, Vasu staged a protest with a few others in front of the Kozhikode Medical College Hospital mortuary where the bodies of the two leaders were kept. He was subsequently charged with unlawful assembly and obstruction of duty of a police officer.
On July 29 this year, following a long-pending warrant, Vasu, a former Naxalite leader, was arrested by the police and remanded in custody after he refused to sign a bail bond. Activists and opposition leaders had called for the withdrawal of charges against him citing his advanced age.
Leader of Opposition VD Satheesan had last week written to chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan demanding that Vasu be freed on account of his age and the simple charges he faces. Satheesan had also met Vasu in jail during his visit to Kozhikode.
Vasu was drawn to the Left political movement in Kerala through the 40s and was an active member of the then undivided Communist Party of India (CPI). But in the 50s, when he felt that the party was going in a different direction, he left it to join the Naxalite movement which was taking roots in the state. For involvement in certain Naxal operations, Vasu was arrested by the police in 1970 and he spent the next seven years in jail.
After his release from jail, Vasu took to umbrella making and sale, a craft he had learned during his teenage years and continues to this day. Ayinoor Vasu got the ‘Grow’ tag to his name for being a part of the Gwalior Rayons Organisation of Workers (GROW) where he led workers to protest at the Gwalior Rayons factory in Mavoor, Kozhikode.
