The Kerala Police, on Friday, registered a case under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against Twenty20 party’s chief coordinator and industrialist Sabu M Jacob and five others on a complaint by CPM legislator PV Sreenijan.
In his complaint to the police, Sreenijan alleged that Sabu Jacob and his party socially boycotted him and did not share a dais with him in August because he was a Dalit.
He alleged that the accused got off the dais at a function as soon as he joined them and preferred to sit with the audience. This, he said, was aimed at ‘insulting him’ in public.
Apart from Jacob, the case has been registered against Aikkaranadu Panchayat President Deena Deepak, Panchayat Vice-President, and Prasanna Pradeep, Panchayat members Sathya Prakash, Jeel Mavelil and Rehani PT.
Also, he added, that Jacob frequently made personal attacks on him because he was born into a Dalit family. Sreenijan, CPM legislator from Kunnathunad Assembly segment, is the son-in-law of former Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan.
The case was registered on December 8 under Sections 3(1) (r) and 3 (1) (u) of the SC/ST Act based on the complaint filed by Sreenijan MLA in the month of September
Sabu M Jacob, who heads the Kitex Group of industries, has denied the allegations. “There is no insult or discrimination in this,” he said. He said that as his party was not affiliated with any political party, they had decided not to share the dais with leaders of any political outfit.