Due to the torture meted out to her by fellow ‘comrades’, Aasha, a female CPI-M cadre committed suicide by hanging herself inside the party office.
Aasha (41) is the wife of Srikumar and hails from Udiyankulangara near Parassala in Thirvananthapuram district. She was working as an ASHA worker. Her family members note that she was a member of the Communist party. She had even reportedly attended a committee meeting of the party a few days ago. But the CPI-M has refused that Asha was a member of the party.
On Thursday, she had gone to the party office after informing the people at her house only to never return.
Worried relatives who had gone to the party office in search of Aasha found her hanging inside the party office.
In the suicide note that was recovered, Aasha mentioned that two leaders of the party – local committee member Kottaman Rajan and Branch Secretary Anatharavilakam Joy, had been mentally harassing her for a long time because of which she fell into depression. She had also mentioned that she raised the matter with senior leaders of the party but fell on deaf ears.
The relatives of Aasha refused to take the body and protested outside the office. Later, the police pacified them and sent the body for post-mortem at theThiruvananthapuram Medical College.
Senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Ramesh Chennithala lashed out saying that women have no safety in the CPI-M party.
He has asked for an impartial investigation by the DGP. He also questioned why the ‘senior comrades’ failed to act when the lady had raised the matter of her being tortured by Rajan and Joy.
No case has been registered so far against Rajan and Joy