Vineeta Kottayi determined to continue her fight against CPM attackers

via Pioneer News Service | Kochi published on June 25, 2006








































Her wait for justice for the last many years has turned futile. Vineeta Kottayi of Kuttiyadi in Kozhikode district on whom the local CPI(M) leadership dictated an embargo is now realising that she will not get justice, though the LDF led by CPI(M) has come into power in the State.

When the LDF Government led by Chief Minister VS Achutanandnan took charge in the third week of May, Vineeta Kottayi, a widow, hoped that the party would take necessary steps to revive the case relating to the attempt on her life and punish the accused persosn who had made her life miserable.

Talking to The Pioneer from Kuttiyadi, Vineeta said: “The CPI(M) local committee secretary has informed me that the case relating to the attempt on my life cannot be reinvestigated as the former UDF Government had destroyed all evidences.” During the UDF rule, the CPI(M) had alleged that the Government had sabotaged the case. Earlier, the party local leadership had assured her that the case would be reinvestigated as soon as a Left Government came to power.

It was on May 20, 2005 that a three-member group, who were reported to be members of the CPI(M), tried to douse her with kerosene and unsuccessfully tried to set her ablaze. But she escaped the attempt. The Crime Branch had taken over the investigation of the case from the local police, and there is no improvement in the investigations, says Vineeta.

“The Crime Branch has not yet drafted the chargesheet against Balan, the main accused. Though the CPI(M) asserts that Balan had been expelled from the party, he is still active in party matters,” Vineeta told The Pioneer. On February 24, 2006, she had submitted a complaint to the Crime Branch top brass on the delay in drafting the chargesheet against Balan. She is yet to get a reply, she says.

However, Vineeta is planning to submit a representation to the Home Minister seeking an immediate intervention on the issue.

“But I have little hope as the CPI(M) State leadership will not be prepared to take action against its local leaders,” says Vineeta. She also plans to approach the High Court in this regard. Vineeta told The Pioneer that the police protection provided to her during the UDF rule also had become nominal in the last couple of months. “

After the swearing-in of the LDF Government, the police officials were not ready to provide police protection,” she said. Thus, even after lifting the embargo ordered by the Kerala Karshaka Thoyzhilali Union (KKTS) of the CPI(M), the life of Vineeta continues to be in misery.

Vineetha Kotayi came to dominate media headlines through her one-woman struggle against an 11-year-old economic blockade imposed by the CPI(M) on her. It is a miracle that she chose to fight against the CPI(M) cadres who had announced an economic blockade against the widow by barring workers from entering her agricultural land. The typical Marxist retaliation was in response to Vineeta’s decision not to employ a woman worker in her five-acre agricultural land on the ground that the latter had encroached on her land.

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