MALAPPURAM: The Malappuram police on Friday registered a case against Shobha Karandlaje, BJP MP from Karnataka, for promoting enmity between communities in Kerala.
The police registered the case against the Udupi-Chikkamagaluru MP under 153(A) of IPC (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony for her remarks in a tweet which she shared on the Social Media on January 22.
In the tweet, she said 21 families in an SC (Scheduled Caste) colony Cherukkunnu in Kuttipuram panchayat in Malappuram district have been denied drinking water for allegedly participating in the Jana Jagratha Sammelanam, a programme held recently by the BJP, to explain the positive sides of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) in Kottakkal, she also alleged "Kerala is taking baby steps to become another Kashmir! "
The police filed the case against Karandlaje based on the complaint from Subash Chandran, a Supreme Court lawyer. Chandran lodged a complaint with Kuttippuram Circle Inspector P V Ramesh against Karandlaje for spreading the message of communal colour on social media and trying to destroy religious harmony and peace in the district - after the tweet went viral on the social media. In the complaint, he mentioned the BJP leader from Karnataka through her tweet tried to show the Muslim majority Malappuram district in Kerala as an area of extremists. The Kuttippuram police said they would conduct a detailed investigation into the case.
"The local body stopped drinking water supply to the colony a year ago due to some reasons. In our preliminary investigation, we found one family supplied water to the 21 other families in the colony. The family took water from a water source which is one kilometre away from the colony using a water pump facility. The facility was allotted by the Krishi Bhavan - a government body that promotes agriculture. Recently, the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) asked the family to stop using electricity for providing drinking water to the families.
The KSEB officials said they would disconnect the electricity supply if they used the facility to provide drinking water to the families.
It is the reason for stopping drinking water supply to the families," explained Aravind E A, Kuttippuram Sub Inspector.
Meanwhile, Karandlaje expressed her displeasure against the state government and Kerala Police for filing a case against her.
"Instead of acting against the discrimination that happened to the Dalit families of Cherukunnu, they lodged a case against me! High time for the entire society to unite against these pressurising tactics of non-performing, biased left government," she tweeted after knowing about the development on Friday. Many BJP members in Karnataka have begun making the issue of the drinking water as an attack against the Hindus in Kerala. More than the BJP workers and the Media in Kerala, the BJP workers in Karnataka and the Media in Karnataka have given significance to the drinking water issue in Kerala.
Though many people in Kerala believe that CAA factor is also a reason for the drinking water issue in the colony, they also want to solve the issues as soon as possible and maintain the religious harmony and peaceful atmosphere in the district. Malappuram witnessed hundreds of protests against CAA and National Register of Citizens (NRC), but none of them crossed the limits to create violence and the protestors have also given priority to harmony and peace.
The Malappuram district administration and the police are on extra vigil to avoid clashes between communities in anti CAA and NRC protests.
The district administration has promised the drinking water issue of the residents will be resolved by Monday.
"The drinking water issue should not be connected to CAA. The Malappuram district administration has decided to solve the drinking water issue of the people in the colony and the residents will be provided drinking water through water tanks from Monday," said an official with the Kuttipuram panchayat who attended the meeting.