KOCHI: The Palarivattom police registered a case against CPM Ernakulam district committee member and Kalamasserry area secretary V.A. Zakir Hussein in connection with the abduction of a businessman with the aid of goondas as part of settling a dispute between business partners. Hussein is the first accused in the case while Karukapilly Siddique, a DYFI leader currently in police custody for threatening a woman entrepreneur and her family, is the second accused.
The others in the case involved are Sheela Thomas, owner of a dairy plant at Kangarappady, and another person. Hussein is also the president of the Ernakulam District Sports Council. The case against Hussein is the first one charged by the special city task force formed on the directive of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to suppress gangsters. The case was registered on the basis of a complaint received by IG S. Sreejith heading the special task force. Juby Poulose, claiming to be the business partner of Sheela Thomas, is the complainant in the case.
According to the complaint, Hussein intervened in a dispute between Ms. Thomas and the complainant using Siddique. Siddique then abducted the complainant and took him to the CPM area committee office and subjected him to physical torture. The police charged him under sections of abduction, physical assault, threatening and forcible custody.
According to the complainant, although the incident took place one-and-a-half-years ago he gathered the courage to file the complaint only after Siddique was arrested by the police in the case connected with threatening the woman entrepreneur. Hussein said that the case was part of the false propaganda against him and that it would be countered legally. According to him, Juby Poulose was a staff member in the dairy plant of Sheela Thomas and that the latter was involved in an attack against the dairy plant.
“I had intervened in the matter to resolve the problem of a woman entrepreneur being subjected to harassment,” he said. He also alleged that a businessman at Kalamasserry along with a few Youth Congress men were behind the complaint. Deputy Commissioner Arul R.B. Krishna meanwhile said that the police will proceed further on the issue after examining why the assistant commissioner of Thrikkakkara failed to act on the complaint filed by Juby Thomas earlier. The CPM district leadership has not issued any official communication in this regard so far.
