KOCHI: Eappan Vettath is on a mission, a unique one at that. A few months ago, 56-year-old Eappan found out that the nameboard on the road leading to his home had disappeared. The road was named after his grandfather Vettath J Mathai MLC and hence Eappan had an emotional connection to it. Eappen approached the Police Station, only to get a different response each time.
"I have been reaching out to the authorities concerned to reinstall the name board. There was no action from the part of Kochi Corporation, so I approached the Ernakulam Town South Police police station to file a complaint. In February, they closed the investigation citing that the area wherein the road situates belonged to the Cochin Shipyard and they removed the board as part of their construction work," said Eappan.
Since Eappan found discrepancies in that statement, he approached the police again demanding a new investigation. "But, even the second probe turned out to be a farce. This time they said the area was 'puramboke' land. There is something fishy about the whole thing," he said. In 2012, the same name board was found defaced by anti-social elements.
Vettath J Mathai was a member of Legislative Council in the erstwhile Cochin State Legislative Council between 1934-1945 and a renowned advocate of that time. Not just this nameboard, many other boards had gone missing from the area and a few were later found abandoned in the compound of Giri Nagar L P School. When enquired, police officials termed it "a matter of miscommunication".
Said Abhilash, SHO, Ernakulam Town South Police Station, "The investigations were handled by two different officers. They closed the files as per the information available at that time. Since there is an allegation, we will look into the case again."