KANNUR: As a man of controlled emotions in public, nobody could say what went through his mind as he walked to the stage to inaugurate the Special Sub Jail at Koothuparamba on Tuesday. But some of those grey-haired people among the audience would surely have remembered the dark days of Emergency when a 26-year-old firebrand leader of CPM then, Pinarayi Vijayan, was beaten up by cops in the old police station and put behind bars in the old sub jail.
The new building replacing the old one was inaugurated by the man himself. Though nearly five decades have gone since Emergency was lifted, people who have watched the political journey of the CPM leader closely would vouch in private that he is not a person who will forget things he had undergone. On Tuesday however, as the chief minister of the state who also handles the home portfolio, Pinarayi looked calm and composed.
It was on September 28, 1975 that the police had arrested Pinarayi, then Koothuparamba MLA. He was beaten up by cops at the police station and imprisoned at Koothuparamba sub jail. Years later, Pinarayi himself had said many times that he was beaten up badly and some of the top police officers too had participated in it. His rousing speech in the Kerala assembly showing his bloodstained shirt and attacking the police and the government was part of history.
These memories might have welled up in him as he received the salute from police officers while he walked to the stage on the same premises. During the dark days of Emergency, many leaders including Pinarayi were beaten up by the police in the torture chambers of old Koothuparamba police station. It was during his first term as the chief minister that Pinarayi had taken the decision to build a special sub jail here. The old building, constructed during the British rule in 1871, was renovated to make way for the new complex built at a cost of Rs. 3.30 crore. According to officials, 50 prisoners can be accommodated in the jail.