A video showing the brutal assault of a Congress worker by another had to go viral for KPCC president Mullappally Ramachandran to swing into action. In a brief press note on Friday, the KPCC president announced the suspension of District Congress Committee general secretary Marayamuttom Suresh for the near fatal beatings and kicks he and an associate unleashed on Youth Congress leader Idavanikkara Jayan. Mullappally was late by 11 days. Jayan, who exposed corruption in a Congress-ruled cooperative bank, was reduced to pulp on February 3.
Jayan is still in Medical College. Close friends say he has trouble speaking but said he was out of danger. "We waited for the Congress leadership to take some action. We leaked the CCTV footage when we realised it was not going to happen," another Congress worker and close friend of Jayan said.
Jayan is attacked in front of Marayamuttam Service Cooperative Bank. He is standing alone, in the parking area of the bank when Suresh, a tall hefty man, came in a bike with his associate. Suresh, who rode pillion, hurriedly steps off the bike and gets hold of Jayan right away. The other person pulls out the cricket bat kept cross in front of the bike and starts to hit Jayan. The victim tries to fight back but the man with the bat manages to fell him with a heavy strike on the head. Jayan falls flat on his face and Suresh keeps stomping on him until his accomplice pulls him away.
This was retaliation for Jayan's role in exposing corruption in the cooperative bank. Suresh is the brother of former bank president M S Anil, who is also the district president of Kerala Karshaka Congress. It was Jayan's police complaint that there was rampant corruption in the bank that led to a probe by the cooperation department.
The Neyyatinkara assistant registrar had unveiled corruption worth Rs 33 crore during the five years under M S Anil. The registrar had also noted in the report that the probe was still incomplete. A major finding was that the bank had not repaid the loan taken from NABARD for poultry farmers. It was said most of the loan had gone to undeserving candidates. Also, it was found that, in violation of cooperation rules, loans were disbursed to bank employees using proxy names.
In his complaint, Jayan had complained that nearly Rs 50 lakh was sanctioned as agriculture loan to the wife of M S Anil on the collateral of two cents of land in her name. More loans were sanctioned in Anil's wife's name on the same two cents of land.
In the wake of the probe report, the bank's governing body was disbanded in 2018 itself. Its operations have now been taken over by an administrator. However, no action has been taken against Anil. The assistant registrar told Onmanorama that she had forwarded the report to the joint registrar. Udayakumar, one of the complainants, said they had met Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and told him of the assistant registrar's report and the need to take action. "He has forwarded the letter to the cooperation secretary (Mini Antony)," Udayakumar said.
Youth Congress leaders in the district are also disappointed that no senior leader had visited Jayan in the hospital. "He was beaten to an inch of his life by a Congress leader and yet no one had come to see him," a Youth Congress worker said. They say that the accused, Suresh, gets his influence from his brother Anil who is said to be a fund raiser for the Congress party. Jayan's friends say that the top Congress leadership in the state was not keen to help Jayan as he was instrumental in booting out the Congress from a wealthy cooperative bank.
