From D.Jose
Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 11: Several top politicians have managed to keep
their names off the chargesheet the Kerala police have filed in the
sensational Kozhikode sex racket. The Chargesheet filed by the Kozhikode
North Assistant Police Commissioner A.V. George before the Judicial First
Class Magistrate on Thursday contain names of only a couple of lightweight
political leaders and less influential persons. The influential ones have
obviously been able to save their skin.
The only politicians figuring in the chargesheet are two former Kozhikode
mayors T.P. Dassan and O. Rajagopal, who belong to the Communist Party of
India (CPI). The two were suspended from the party soon after their name
figured in connection with the case.
Women's organisations in the state have expressed their anger over the
conspicuous exclusion of several top leaders including former Industries
Minister and Muslim League leader P.K. Kunhalikutty in the chargesheet,
which was filed after the case was kept in the cold storage for several
months. 
The first accused as per the chargesheet submitted by North Assistant
Police Commissioner A.V. George under section 366, 109,and 120B of IPC and
sections e (1), 5 (1)-AAD of the Prevention of Immoral Act is Sreedevi
(38). The charge against her is that she enticed five girls working in her
Ice Cream Parlor in Kozhikode City and sent them to the other accused for
the purpose of indulging in immoral activities at various well-known
hotels in the city.
Besides, Sreedevi, Dassan and Rajagopal, the others included in the
chargesheet are C.P. Abdulla (48), Khaderkutty (44), P.A. Rahiman (50),
M.K. Abdul Khader (49), Kalarikkal Basheer (43), James Joseph (35), K.T.
Joseph (38), Baby Joseph (47) C.M. Kutty (63), Aravindakshan (38)
Baijunath Katippali(36), K. Rafi (39) and N. Vijayan (37). The police have
produced a list of 61 prosecution witnesses in connection with the case.
K.Ajitha of Anweshi, which exposed the Kozhikode sex scandal, has
expressed dismay over the failure of the police to include Muslim League
leader P.K. Kunhalikutty in the chargesheet. She averred that his name had
figured in the original investigation of the police and it was dropped at
the behest of the ruling dispensation for their own political gains. 
Ajitha, who is now leading a vehicle jatha from Kanhangad to
Thiruvananthapuram in support of her demand to bring to book all the
culprits, alleged the Left Front Government in Kerala was giving green
signal to the sex mafia, currently controlled by a
politician-bureaucrat-business nexus. She said that the development the
politicians promise these days seems to the development of sex and added
that sex industry will be the biggest industry in Kerala in the next
decade.
The former naxalite leader said that the tendency in the state now is to
punish the victims, with police protection transforming into incarceration
for them while culprits walk free. 
It may be recalled that "Stree Vedi" comprising over 40 women's
organisations in Kerala had been organising a relentless campaign for the
arrest of all the politicians involved in the sex racket. The present
vehicle jatha is also part of the campaign, which began with an Assembly
march on June 29, a relay satyagriha before the Secretariat from July 13
to August 6, a march to the residence of the chief minister on August 4
and blocking of MLAs on March 5. The vehicle jatha is slated to end on
December 17.
Meanwhile, sources do not recount the possibility of including the League
leader in the case subsequently. A chargesheet has already been filed
against him in another case. This is seen as a sign of Communists falling
out with the former Industries Minister following the Calcutta Congress
decision to have no truck with the Indian Union Muslim League and other
communal parties.