Kerala: When activists tried corrupt in public

KOZHIKODE: An event of far-reaching consequences took place in Kozhikode on March 23, 1981, exactly 35 years ago.   That was the public trial of the  corrupt doctors of the Medical College Hospital here by the  Janakeeya Samskarika Vedi activists, associated with the Naxalite group in Kerala, CRC-CPI-ML.

“The trigger for the trial was a report published in an evening daily on the rampant corruption going on in the MCH. Patients had to sell their essentials to bribe doctors for surgery,” reminisces  Mr Sethu, the Vedi leader who was in-charge of the operation.

“I was deputed by party leaders K. Venu and Grow Vasu to prepare a background report on the situation. It took three months to collect information from the MCH.  The junior doctors, Dr C.P Sreedharan, Dr Abdul Aziz and  Dr Brahmaputhran leaked us valuable tips and we prepared a report
exposing  11 doctors as the most corrupt, viz., K.M George,  Sreenivasan, Moideenkutty, Mohan Kumar, Thyagarajan, V.J. Nair, K.P. Rajagopal, S.K. Ramachandran, Mukherji, Vijayalakshmi Mukherji and radiologist Rathnakumari.   Some 2,000 copies of the report were distributed in the MCH area and doctors were on their toes,” said Mr Sethu.

Among the accused, the most notorious, Prof K.M. George was selected for the public trial. The state committee meeting of the ML which took the decision wanted that  the arrest of Grow Vasu and Sethu should be avoided  at any cost.     

On the day,  squad members Shashi, Sreenivasan (workers of Naxalite student wing, KVS) and Ramdas  caught hold of Prof George once he got out of his car from the parking lot, which is situated on the backside of the present casualty block. Grow Vasu was supervising everything, including an  attack in case of a police intervention. 

A. Soman was selected as the leader of the trial.  Dr George was garlanded with sandals and brought out of the hospital campus to the spot where the present park circle is situated. Slogans were shouted and soon more than 150 people gathered.    Soman read the chargesheet and asked the crowd to ask questions which they did on their own. The episode  ended in an hour and Dr George was freed.

Later,  the activists took out a rally to Kozhikode city but were brutally lathicharged by police at Kovoor.  Ayyappan, Chandran Master, Mammu, Odesa Sathyan (he didn’t take part in the trial) among others suffered serious injurious and 30 were  arrested,  including A. Soman.  

Vedi members Mayanad Vijayan, Ramesh Chalappuram, Pradeep Mananthawady, Kochu Soman, Dasan (Both stayed in Kundamangalam) among others actively participated in the trial.

The incident received  nationwide attention and largely changed the public perception towards Naxalites.  Seven of the corrupt doctors were transferred.  All involved in the case were later set free by the court.  There was massive support for the programme and even the then Supreme Court Chief Justice, Y.V. Chandrachud,  lauded it. Eight newspapers wrote editorials on it and reporters of national dailies came down to Kozhikode to cover the subsequent events.