Kannur: Valapattanam Police have arrested one person in connection with the assault on the late Dalit autorickshaw driver E Chithralekha's husband, Shreeshkant M (49), on January 7.

The arrested person has been identified as Shaji Kuthirathadam (40) of Kuthirathadam near Kattampally in Chirakkal grama panchayat on the outskirts of Kannur city.

Though Chithralekha and her husband have been at the receiving end of suspected CPM activists' caste violence for around 20 years, Valapattanam police have dismissed the latest attack as borne from personal enmity. "The accused told us that Shreeshkant got drunk and verbally abused his wife, and that's why he assaulted him. There is nothing more to the incident. We have also not got anything more than that," said a sub-inspector of Valapattanam.

Shaji has, however, been remanded in judicial custody for 14 days because he allegedly caused grievous injury to Shreeshkant, he said. Shaji, a CPM worker, was booked for criminal trespass, wrong restraint, and voluntarily causing hurt under sections 329 (3), 126 (2), and 118 (2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). If convicted, he faces a sentence ranging from one year to life imprisonment.

Shreeshkant was attacked with an iron rod and his left shin bone was broken. He underwent surgery at the Kannur District Hospital on Friday. "I had to buy a steel implant for Rs 7,500 for the surgery. In all, I spent around Rs 10,000, including on medicines," he told Onmanorama.

An intramedullary locking nail (ILN) has been inserted into the bone's marrow canal to stabilise and align the fractured tibia or shinbone.

Shreeshkant said he and his wife frequently faced attacks from CPM activists whenever they tried to drive their autorickshaws for a living. "That's why they burned our autorickshaws twice. That's why we had to flee Payyannur and come to Kattampally. That's why my wife went on an indefinite hunger strike demanding justice. That's why the UDF government gave us land and sanctioned Rs 5 lakh to build a house. That's why the CPM protested and the LDF government withheld both the sanctioned money and allotted land. My wife died fighting their relentless atrocities," he said. (To be sure, the High Court reinstated the land and the housing fund later.)

After Chithralekha died of pancreatic cancer and jaundice on October 5, 2024, Shreeshkant said, he rarely got out of the house. "Only after the RTO transferred my wife's autorickshaw permit to my daughter's name on January 1, I started going out to drive the auto," he said. "On the fifth day, they barged into my house and broke my leg," he said. "Now they are coming up with this story that I abused a woman whom I don't even know," he said.

When Chithralekha was alive, the women's wing of Aam Aadmi Party bought her an autorickshaw by paying the down payment. She was expected to pay the EMI of Rs 8,200 by plying the autorickshaw. But she fell ill frequently and often defaulted on repayment. "Now I just started driving the auto, and they put me in the hospital. Where will I get the money from to pay my hospital bills?" he said.

He does not have insurance and the District Government Hospital made him buy the disposables, implant and medicines for the surgery and post-surgery, said his daughter E Megha.