Viji, wife of Sanal Kumar, who died after an altercation with Deputy Superintendent of Police B Harikumar, collapsed at the venue in front of the Secretariat, where she has been protesting for the past 12 days.
She has been admitted at the General Hospital Thiruvananthapuram. “Doctors said that she has high blood pressure because of which she collapsed. She is not sleeping properly after the death of her husband. She is stable now,” Varghese, Viji’s father, tells TNM.
A daily wage worker, Varghese is not capable of looking after his daughter and her two kids, and sounds worried when he talks. “Every day, she returns home from the protest venue in the evening. Today also, she came from morning and was sitting there. She collapsed by 11, and was shifted to hospital. We didn’t bring the children today as they are down with fever. They were living off the earnings from Sanal’s work, after their marriage. After all, how I will be capable of looking after them with the income from daily wage work,” Varghese adds.
The 26-year old woman has been protesting to press the government to provide the compensation it promised to the family.
"We haven't received any of the promised money from the government until now. Not even the basic Rs 10,000 that they are supposed to give us," Viji had told TNM.
32-year old Sanal Kumar was pushed to death by Harikumar following a verbal spat. Viji and her two children started the protest after the Kerala government failed to provide any monetary compensation to the aggrieved family.
The altercation took place on November 5, when Harikumar wanted Sanal to remove his car that was parked on the road and Sanal's delay by a few minutes angered the officer. Harikumar then assaulted Sanal, who was an electrician from Kodungavilla, near Neyyantinkara on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram.
Sanal was the sole breadwinner for the family. The family now depends on relatives and has a mounting loan of Rs 25 lakh.
On November 13, accused Harikumar was found hanging from his house in Kallambalam. This happened nine days after he went absconding, following Sanal's death.