Kollam: Gulf-returnee Sugathan who had to end his life last year after local politicians prevented him from making a living investing all his savings back home is yet to get justice.
The 65-year-old victim of political one-upmanship committed suicide in February at Vilakkudi in Punalur after CPI workers forced the closure of his automobile workshop after planting a red flag before it.
The flags raised by the AIYF at the place where Sugathan planned to start his workshop - File pic
The Left government had assured his family its support to open the workshop, which never materialised.
The Congress party held a protest march to the Vilakkudy panchayat office on Tuesday demanding justice to the family.
Sugathan had worked for some 35 years as an automobile mechanic in Muscat before returning for good to set up his workshop here.
He constructed a shed at Elambal on leased property, spending nearly Rs 3 lakh.The local leaders of AIYF, the youth wing of CPI, disrupted its construction works driving him to hang in the half-built shed.
The AIYF alleged that it was illegal to use the land for commercial purpose as it was a paddy field 13 years back. The politicians allegedly demanded money to settle it, which he rejected and sought the intervention of leaders, but in vain.
The AIYF had given a deadline to demolish the shed and erected its flag poles there, though there were several buildings including an auditorium already built on this "wetland" filled long back with the support of the same party.
Making a statement in the Assembly a week later, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan had then also warned of stern action against political parties and unionists bullying entrepreneurs.
The police had also arrested a local CPI leader on charges of abetting the suicide, but the workshop remains shut.
The Kerala State Human Rights Commission had also ordered a probe into the suicide.
