Thiruvananthapuram: Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran has said that Venugopalan Nair who committed suicide in front of the secretariat was being portrayed as a martyr, betraying desperation of the BJP due to the failure of its plan to create 'balidanis' by provoking the police at Sabarimala and other places.
Mr Surendran told reporters that the state government would conduct a comprehensive probe into the suicide of Nair.
The people of the state rejected the dawn-to-dusk hartal called by the BJP, he said. “The hartal is a drama staged by the BJP,” the minister said. “No one knows whether Venugopalan Nair, who died after immolating himself, owed allegiance to any political party. . His brother was a member of the labour union in Choozhampala.”
Earlier, the BJP had tried to portray Pandalam native Sivadasan who died in a vehicle accident as a ‘balidani’, Mr Surendran said.
Even the BJP leaders said that his family was with the LDF, he said. Nair had stated in the dying declaration to the magistrate that the kerosene used for immolating himself was bought by him, He also said that nobody else is responsible for it, Mr Surendran pointed out.
“He resorted to the act due to depression and ran frantically towards the protest venue after setting himself afire,” Mr Surendran said. The magistrate recorded his dying declaration as he had suffered 70 per cent burns and the self-immolation attempt happened near a protest venue, the minister pointed out. “We tried to give him the best of treatment,” he said.
