KOCHI: CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan on Monday visited the house of S R Sreejith, the victim in the Varappuzha custodial death case. The CPM leader, accompanied by red volunteers and the police, reached the house of Sreejith after attending a public meeting organised by the CPM at Varappuzha. Kodiyeri reached the house of Sreejith by 5 pm and spoke to his parents. While talking to the CPM leader, Sreejith’s mother Shyamala and wife Akhila burst into tears. Kodiyeri told the family the CPM is always with the victims and assured them the culprits, whoever they are, will be brought before the law and punished.
Talking to reporters after the visit, Kodiyeri said Sreejith’s wife should be given a government job and the family should be compensated for.“The incident is totally unfortunate. Not a single person should suffer custodial death. And personally, I don’t believe the family of Sreejith has any misunderstanding against the CPM. And the reason party leaders avoided visiting his house was that we didn’t want to intensify the gravity of the issue by paying a visit when the issue was very much live,” Kodiyeri said. Earlier, there was widespread criticism against the Chief Minister and his party leaders for not visiting the house of Sreejith.
“The Chief Minister had not avoided visiting the house of Sreejith deliberately. Whenever he reaches Ernakulam, there would be a lot of events scheduled for him to attend. However, the arrest and suspension of police officers show the government is taking prompt action on this issue. The investigation team probing the case will decide further steps,” he said.Kodiyeri also visited the house of Vasudevan, who committed suicide.