Kozhikode: Vadakara RMP candidate K.K. Rema was attacked by CPM workers while she was campaigning near Thacholi Manikoth temple at Vadakara on Saturday. They twisted her right hand, and as she felt dizzy, she was taken to the Government Hospital. She was discharged in the evening.
The police registered a case against three CPM workers -- Ajay Sasidharan, Mithu Karimbanapalam, and Reejith -- for causing hurt, uttering obscene words, criminal intimidation and outraging the modesty of a woman. Rema was visiting an area considered to be the stronghold of the CPM. When she sought water from the house of an RMP worker’s relative, some of the neighbours objected to it as the owner of the house was a CPM worker.
Rema said that the abuse intensified after she left that house and visited nearby houses seeking vote. “An elderly man showed me an album containing all the news related to T.P. Chandrasekharan. I was moved. Later, when I walked into another house with eight other party workers, a group of around 10 men surrounded us, showering abuses and twisting my hand. They threatened me that if my husband had 51 slashes I would be hacked into 52 pieces,” Rema said.
Some of the women, who were along with Rema during the campaign, shot videos of the attack. One phone was snatched by the attackers. Soshima, an RMP worker, said that they returned the phone on the promise that the video will be deleted. However, the CPM Vadakara area committee dismissed the incidents as a tactic to garner more votes. They also criticised the press conference called by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy to condemn the attack.
