THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala politics had its first accidental brush with a sex scandal about six decades ago when a senior politician met with a minor accident. Not only did it cost him his position within the party and the government but also led to the formation of a regional party that eventually altered the course of state politics.
The MeToo storm that has hit the Malayalam film industry has rekindled memories of sex scandals rocking the political milieu, which saw stalwarts losing their ministerial berths.
A regional political party in the state was born because of a sex scandal that shook the R Sankar ministry in 1964. If not for the ouster of 49-year-old Congress stalwart P T Chacko from the ministry, and his subsequent death due to a heart attack, Kerala Congress would not have come into existence. Interestingly, Chacko had to step down as home, revenue and law minister as he was seen travelling with a woman Congress leader, Padmam S Menon, in his car. Kerala has since then seen a slew of political sex scandals that have also tickled the conservative minds of society.
At least a few politicians were guarded in their approach when controversies raged in the aftermath of the Justice Hema Committee report’s release in August. All India Congress Committee leader Simy Rosebell John, who alleged that a film industry-like casting couch was prevalent in politics, was expelled from the party. Her revelation is an isolated case as many in political parties do not show the guts to come out in the open, lest it affect their political careers in a field already a bastion of men.
A maverick Joseph Pulikunnel, a former theologian and Congress leader, in his autobiography ‘Ithu Ente Vazhi’ (This Is My Path) had revealed that the untimely exit of Chacko from Sankar’s ministry was orchestrated by rival Congress leaders comprising the then KPCC president C K Govindan Nair. Chacko’s offer to give a lift to Thrissur DCC leader Padmam affected his stature and caused the downfall of the Sankar government.
Following Chacko’s demise, 15 legislators loyal to him came out with a no-confidence motion against the government. Were it not for a minor accident where a car driven by Chacko hit a hand cart, after which people saw that he was travelling with a woman leader, the issue would have hardly snowballed into a major controversy. Party workers’ grievous mistake of claiming the female passenger to be his wife only added fuel to the fire.
Senior journalist Sunnykutty Abraham told TNIE that the untimely developments while Chacko was en route to Thrissur led to the birth of the Kerala Congress. “Those days a woman travelling with a Congress leader was considered taboo. Times have changed as men and women now travel together freely,” Sunnykutty said.
The second scandal involving a political leader erupted in the 1980s, 17 years after the first. Opponents from the Kerala Congress (M) raised an allegation about an illegitimate affair against Kerala Congress (Joseph) MLA P C George in the state assembly. It ended with the opponents slinging mud at each other. It was said the allegation was raised in retaliation to the MLA switching allegiance.
Years later, the resurfacing of the Suryanelli sex scandal case rocked Kerala when the then Rajya Sabha deputy chairman P J Kurien came under a cloud of suspicion again after the survivor saw his picture and told investigators that he was among the tormentors. The girl filed a private complaint in a magistrate court as the police did not cite Kurien as an accused. Kurien told investigators that he was not in Kumily on that particular day but in Tiruvalla and Changanassery.
When the case came up in the Kerala High Court, he was cleared by investigators and prosecutors under both the Congress-led UDF government and the CPM-led LDF government. The LDF used the case as a political weapon in the parliamentary elections of 1996 and the assembly elections even though it was the E K Nayanar-led Left government which allegedly settled the case in Kurien’s favour. However, people close to Kurien had alleged it as a politically motivated case as he was gaining ground within Congress and the political landscape. Having always maintained his innocence, Kurien received the people’s mandate even after facing the accusation.
PK Kunhalikutty tasted defeat I'm 2006 assembly election due to ice cream parlour sex scandal
In 1997, state politics was rocked again, this time by the ice cream parlour sex scandal and the alleged involvement of P K Kunhalikutty, the then industries minister in the UDF government and a senior IUML leader. Kunhalikutty suffered an electoral defeat in the 2006 assembly election due to his alleged involvement in the case. In 2011, the controversy resurfaced after K A Rouf, co-brother of Kunhalikutty, disclosed that the minister had influenced many key witnesses to turn hostile. A special investigation team was also set up. However, the Supreme Court in 2016 dismissed a petition seeking CBI inquiry, relieving Kunhalikutty from the case.
In the same year, prominent CPM leader and former Kannur district secretary and state committee member P Sasi was named in a sexual misconduct case. It was only after veteran leader V S Achuthanandan took a tough stand that a hesitant CPM leadership expelled him from its primary membership. He was later inducted into the district committee and state committee and was finally made the political secretary of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
“Incidents of sex scandals can be seen more in UDF than in LDF,” political commentator S Jayasankar told TNIE. “Like the film industry, casting couch also exists in the political sphere. If someone wants to progress their class in politics, they have to succumb to powerful leaders,” he said. Former transport minister A Neelalohithadasan Nadar raked up a controversy when he was accused of sexually harassing then transport secretary Nalini Netto.
The case against Neelan was that he attempted to outrage the modesty of Netto after she was called to his room in the Kerala Legislative Assembly complex to discuss official issues. It saw the exit of Neelan, the lone Janata Dal (Secular) minister, from the E K Nayanar ministry in 2000. A fast-track court acquitted Neelan because the prosecution was unable to prove the charges against him.
In 2004, however, Neelan was sentenced to one-year rigorous imprisonment on the sexual assault charges levelled by Prakruthi Srivastava, then Divisional Forest Officer.
Kerala Congress (Joseph) chairman P J Joseph, too, was sucked into a controversy when he was accused of misbehaviour with a woman co-passenger on a Kingfisher flight who claimed he molested her on a Chennai-Kochi flight in 2006. Joseph was forced to step down from the V S Achuthanandan ministry. In 2009, the Sriperumbudur Magistrate Court acquitted Joseph.
In 2013, a woman from Angamaly alleged that Jose Thettayil, then Angamaly MLA, and his son Adarsh Thettayil had sexually abused her. The woman alleged that the former minister promised her that his son would marry her. Later, it was proved that those were consensual encounters, and not rape, that happened over year.
The 'God' of sex scandals in Kerala was the most controversial Solar case
The biggest of all sex scandals erupted in 2013 when the Oommen Chandy-led UDF government was in power. Sexual exploitation allegation was raised against the then CM Chandy, minister A P Anil Kumar, MP Hibi Edan, and Congress leader K C Venugopal by solar scam accused Saritha Nair. The opposition LDF organised a secretariat siege demanding the resignation of the accused. The police registered rape cases against Chandy, Venugopal and others. In 2021, the LDF government recommended an inquiry by the CBI, which later gave a clean chit to Chandy and others. However, the case helped the LDF register a huge victory over the UDF in the assembly election.
The LDF government was also rocked by a scandal in 2013 after its minster K B Ganesh Kumar was forced to resign on the complaint of his then wife accusing him of physical assault, domestic violence and mental torture. Ganesh is now a minister in the present LDF government.
Then there was the first-ever honey trap case in 2017, involving the then transport minister A K Saseendran. The LDF government had no option but to seek his resignation after a local channel broadcast an audio clip in which Saseendran was purportedly heard speaking inappropriately with a woman. Saseendran resigned on March 26, 2017. However, he was later acquitted after the petitioner told a court that the matter had been settled out of court. In 2018, he was re-inducted into the cabinet. Saseendran won the next 2021 assembly election.
According to political commentator Ajith Sreenivasan, in 99 out of 100 sexual abuse cases, the accused have been averting justice by using either their power to manipulate evidence or defecting witnesses.
On July 22, 2017, Congress MLA from Kovalam M Vincent was arrested on charges of rape and jailed. However, the Congress maintained that the accused MLA should not resign. On November 26, 2018, the CPM suspended its then MLA P K Sasi for six months on a sexual harassment complaint filed by a DYFI woman leader. Congress MLA from Peumbavoor, Edhose Kunnapally, was arrested on October 22, 2022, for sexually assaulting a woman.
He was released on bail. In this case too, neither the Congress nor the UDF pressed for his resignation as MLA.P C George was arrested on July 2, 2022, for outraging the modesty of a woman, after the prime accused in the Solar scam case accused him of sexual misbehaviour. In the latest case involving a politician in sexual harassment case, CPM MLA and actor M Mukesh has been booked on the complaint of a Kochi-based actor. “Though a majority of politicians were acquitted, compared to other sectors, they were punished in the legal course of action,” senior journalist M G Radhakrishnan told TNIE.
Social commentator and lawyer A Jayasankar told TNIE that a majority of the sex scandals that came out in the open mostly include Congress and UDF leaders as it has an open system.
“There have been sexual assault issues in CPM too, but there is an iron curtain and above all, a powerful organisational structure which ensures sleazy issues do not get media glare. Why did Simy Rosebell John come out against the Congress leadership? Everyone knows she has been sidelined and hence decided to break the silence,” said Jayasankar.
Scandal leads to party genesis
A regional political party in the state was born because of a sex scandal that shook the R Sankar ministry in 1964. If not for the ouster of 49-year-old-Congress stalwart P T Chacko from the ministry, and his subsequent death due to a heart attack, Kerala Congress would not have come into existence
2013 scandal expose
The biggest of all sex scandals erupted in 2013 when the Oommen Chandy-led UDF government was in power. Sexual exploitation allegation was raised against the then CM Chandy, minister A P Anil Kumar, MP Hibi Edan, and Congress leader K C Venugopal by solar scam accused Saritha Nair