Following a suo motu case registered by the Kerala High Court after a 49-year-old NRI businessman from Kerala ended his life due to alleged harassment by the local administration, the deceased’s brother has petitioned the court to be part of the hearings.
Sreejith Parayil, the sole brother of Kannur based Sajan Parayil who died in June, submitted a petition to the court requesting the same.
“Sajan is survived by his wife and two children. His wife is still struggling to get out of the agony caused on account of the death of her husband. She also wanted to be a part of the above proceedings. However, she could not do so since she is not able to come to Ernakulam at this juncture and to do the needful for the conduct of the case. Therefore, she also has asked the 3rd party petitioned (Sreejith) to join the case and to participate in the proceedings and to make required submissions,” he stated.
On June 18, Sajan, a Nigeria-based businessman from Kannur took his life after his Rs 15 crore state-of-the-art convention centre in Bakalam was stalled by the Anthoor municipality due to personal vendetta. Sajan had invested the money and spent a year and a half to build the convention centre in Kannur. However, due to indefinite delay in receiving an occupancy certificate from the Anthoor municipality, he decided to end his life. Following his death, Sajan’s family blamed the Anthoor municipality chairperson PK Shyamala, secretary MK Gireesh and chief engineer Kalesh for intentionally delaying permits and harassing the former. According to Sajan’s wife, Shyamala even said that Sajan will not be given the occupancy certificate as long as she held the post.
Speaking to TNM, Sajan’s associate Sajivan who was the project manager in-charge of the convention centre said that for the last 6 months, the municipality officials were citing flimsy excuses and making the NRI man run from pillar to post to get the permit.
Sajan’s death has come as a major embarrassment to the ruling CPI(M) government in Kerala as municipality chairperson PK Shyamala is the wife of senior CPI(M) leader MV Govindan Master, who is well connected in the party. Reacting to the incident, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan refused to condemn Shyamala and instead, blamed it on the municipality officials.
“The petitioner on his own, as the sole brother of Sajan, also has concern in the matter and he also is worried about the manner in which the officers of the Anthoor municipality and the office bearers including the Chairperson of the Municipal council have mishandled the issue and worsened the situation. The issue also involves lethargy, maladministration and corruption on the part of the officers of the Anthoor municipality which ultimately led to the unfortunate situation,” the petition further states.