Kollam: Anderson Edward, 30, friend of Sreejith who is protesting in front of the Secretariat seeking justice for his younger brother who died in police custody, faced the fury of Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala's fans for questioning the latter’s indifference as home minister. Miscreants threw stones at his house in Sasthamkotta where he lives with his aged parents, in the early hours of Tuesday.
Anderson had earlier “reminded” Chennithala of his arrogant disposition when Sreejith visited him while he was the home minister. Mocking at Sreejith’s mode of protest, Mr. Chennithala had said Sreejith would be “covered with dust and bitten by mosquitoes” while staging a protest on the footpath in front of the Secretariat. The incident took place when Chennithala visited Sreejith in front of the Secretariat on Saturday.
According to Anderson’s mother Mercy, stones were pelted at their house around 2 am on Tuesday morning. “Anderson is an ardent worker of KSU. Our family is a Congress family and my husband had even contested in the panchayat election here. My husband and I were alone in the house when the incident took place. We need protection,” said Mercy. Anderson is a local ‘I’ group KSU leader in Sasthamkotta. The Sasthamkotta police has begun an inquiry into the issue.
The hunger strike by Sreejith in front of the secretariat for the past 770 days demands a CBI probe into the death of his younger brother Sreejeev who died after being taken into police custody in 2014. Sreejeev was admitted to hospital by the police alleging that he had consumed poison but injury marks were also found on his body. A police probe deemed the death as a case of suicide, while the Police Complaints Authority, had in 2016 found the case was a custodial death and ordered that the compensation paid to the victim’s family was to be levied on policemen, including the Circle Inspector and Sub-Inspector.
