Karthik's case: Rights panel seeks report

KOZHIKODE: The State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (KeSCPCR) has sought a report from the  DGP and Kannur superintendent of police on the hacking of a seven-year-old boy in Iritty in Kannur last month. Karthik,  son of  BJP workers Rahul and Remya at Pala, Kakkayangad in Iritty,  was hacked on his left hand allegedly by his uncle Manu on May 30.

Manu, formerly a BJP worker, had defected to the CPM and is still at large after the incident. Though the CPM says that the issue is family related,  the BJP and Karthik’s parents assert that it was political vendetta. Demanding justice to Karthik, BJP state president Kummanan Rajasekharan had approached the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) which  referred it to the KeSCPCR.

“We will visit Karthik in the coming days to study  the incident,” said Adv Naseer Chaliyam, KeSCPCR member. Remya, who contested as BJP candidate in the local poll,  says that Karthik was hacked by Manu in front of her.   “Manu along with two others came to our house asking for Rahul.  Rahul was not here and amid the verbal duel between me and Manu, he attacked Karthik with a knife,” Remya told DC. Rahul says that the CPM workers had placed a wreath at their house after his wife contested as a BJP candidate.

Meanwhile, Remya’s parents Thankachan and Geetha say the issue was a family problem and that the BJP was falsely propagating it against the CPM. The BJP is using the issue to attack the CPM in various forums. “We are determined to expose the violent face of CPM which did not spare even a child,” averred BJP Kannur district president P. Sathyaprakash.