Kerala political crisis: Congress neta alleges CPM activists' threats led to BLO’s suicide; audio clip hints at SIR pressure

KANNUR: Kerala's Kannur district Congress committee president Martin George on Monday alleged that booth level officer (BLO) Aneesh George died by suicide on Sunday due to threats by CPM netas, and not work pressure.During an interaction with reporters, Martin George released an audio clip of phone calls between the deceased and a booth-level agent (BLA) of Congress party, hinting at political pressure faced by him over the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.Martin alleged CPM threatened Aneesh to avoid UDF’s representatives while visiting houses as part of SIR. “CPM pressured Aneesh to include CPM branch secretary and DYFI functionaries for field visit instead of UDF’s representatives,” said the DCC president.According to him, all parties had suggested their representatives as BLAs to ensure transparency in SIR activities.“But, Aneesh was forced to exclude UDF BLAs during house visits. CPM’s BLA Rafeeq had threatened Aneesh demanding he exclude Congress’s BLA Vysakh during house visits. His suicide was not due to workload. He ended his life due to political pressure and threats from CPM netas and workers. A case should be registered against Rafeeq,” Martin said.

Meanwhile, CPM denied the charges, saying that the attempts to divert the issue for political gains should be realised.CPM Kannur district secretary K K Ragesh alleged EC’s instruction to publish first phase of draft voters list on Dec 8, despite the busy work related to local body elections, had increased the workload of BLOs tenfold. The state govt will approachSupreme Court against this, he said. CPM will also legally challenge these anti-people SIR activities, he added.

Ragesh also said that Aneesh’s family had clarified that he had no personal issues and he ended life only due to the pressure related to election work.Body handed over to kinThe body of Aneesh was handed over to his relatives after postmortem Monday. Aneesh’s family reiterated he had been under severe work pressure related to the SIR.“He did not even get time to eat and sleep properly. He was under severe strain to complete the work assigned to him as part of the SIR exercise,” Aneesh’s brother-in-law Saiju told reporters. Saiju added that Aneesh was frequently contacted by senior officers for updates. “Seeing the severe workload, Aneesh’s father told him not to worry even if he loses his job,” he added.