Author: M. G. Radhakrishnan
Publication: India Today
Date: June 6, 2011
URL: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/story/kerala-will-udf-bury-ice-cream-parlour-sex-case-involving-p-k-kunhalikutty/1/139517.html
Introduction: Overheated its poll performance, Muslim league demands an extra
Ministry and sets off speculation that a sex case involving its leader may
be buried
Will the new United Democratic Front (UDF) Government in Kerala bury the
sensational ice-cream parlour sex case involving P.K. Kunhalikkutty, Muslim
League general secretary and new industries minister? Given the pressure the
League has begun to exert on the government that survives on a wafer-thin
majority of four seats, this may indeed be the case. Emboldened by winning
a record 20 of the 24 seats it contested in the Assembly elections, the League
has put the Oommen Chandy government-which assumed power on May 18-in a fix
by demanding a fifth berth, in the 20-member ministry.
Even before UDF discussed the demand, the League announced M. Ali as its
fifth minister, and his portfolio, parliamentary affairs. Though the Congress
and Chandy insist that there has never been any talk on the fifth minister,
the League refuses to budge. "We had four ministers when we had 19 MLAs.
This time we have 20 and deserve five berths," says Kunhalikkutty. Embarrassing
Chandy and the Congress some more, it was League Chairman Panakkad Hyderali
Thangal who announced the portfolios of all party ministers, considered the
chief minister's prerogative. The League's demand has provoked the Kerala
Congress-Mani (KC-M), another UDF constituent backed by the Church, to ask
for one more berth besides the two it has. "We don't know about the League's
demand, but we deserve one more," said party Chairman K.M. Mani, the
new finance minister. kc-m has also staked claim to the Speaker's post.
Pressures from the League and KC-M are a pointer to attempts by Muslim and
Christian religious leadership to control government agenda. Already, 10 of
the 20 ministers come from the minority communities, which together constitute
44 per cent of Kerala's population. One more minister for either the League
or KC-M would give minorities a majority in the Cabinet.
Another worry for the UDF is the recently reopened 14-year-old ice-cream
parlour sex case in which Kunhalikkutty is accused by a minor girl of rape.
The case was based on complaints, which were withdrawn, by the girl in 1997
and again in 2004 that she was sexually exploited by Kunhalikkutty and others
while she was a minor and he a minister in the UDF government of 1996-2001.
The girl was working at an ice-cream parlour in Kozhikode where, an investigation
revealed, a sex racket involving minor girls was on. Speculation is that the
case may be buried again, especially with the very first appointment made
by the new government-P.C. Iype as the new additional advocate general. Iype
was the special public prosecutor in the case during the previous UDF ministry
of 2001-06 and faces charges of helping bury the case. His appointment by
the then UDF government as special prosecutor after relieving the then director
general of prosecutions from the case, had invited flak. Iype had argued before
the high court in 2004 that Kunhalikkutty was innocent, leading to his exoneration
in 2006.
In January this year, K.A. Rauf, an estranged accomplice of Kunhalikutty,
said that he had paid the girl to drop the charges and also bribed two high
court judges for favourable verdicts. Rauf also alleged that K.C. Peter, then
additional director general of prosecutions, and Iype had helped him bribe
the judges. Following this a TV channel-ironically headed by a Muslim League
leader-conducted a sting operation in which Peter was caught admitting on
camera that a bribe was paid to the judges through Iype. The Left Democratic
Front (LDF) government reopened the case in February and the police registered
a fresh case against Kunhalikkutty. Peter and Iype were interrogated in March.
Former chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan, who pursued the case for years;
says, "Indications are that the case will soon be buried again."
But Chandy denies this, saying, "The investigation in the case will continue
unhindered."
In a first for Kerala, a tribal minister
Oommen Chandy's has become Kerala's first ever ministry to have a member from
the state's 3.6 lakh-strong tribal community, which constitutes 1.14 per cent
of the population.
P.K. Jayalakshmi, 30, the new Minister for Tribal Affairs and Youth Affairs,
is a graduate in English Literature and a champion archer, a skill her warrior
tribe, Kurichya, is famous for. "I am thankful to all, especially Rahul
Gandhi," says Jayalakshmi, who won from the reserved Mananthavady seat
to become the only woman among the 38 new Congress MLAs. She and 18 other
youngsters were part of the 'Rahul List' handed down by the Youth Congress
to the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee to be given tickets.
"My priority will be women's and tribal welfare," she says. She
has much to do, for the state's tribals have been a neglected lot, largely
missing out on Kerala's general social advancement.
