A day after CPI(M) leader P Jayarajan's stated that Alan Shuhaib and Thaha Fasal were SFI members who spread Maoist ideology within the organisation, Alan's mother Sabitha has hit back with a response.
In a short statement posted on Facebook on Saturday, Sabitha said that her son Alan had never been an active member of the SFI (student wing of the CPI(M)
"Alan was never an active member of the SFI. He was associated with the local CPI(M) unit next to our house. Even in the Palakkad campus he was never an active SFI member. So how can a person who has never actively worked in the SFI convert SFI members into maoists?" Sabitha's post asked.
On November 1, 2019, Alan Shuhaib and Thaha Fasal were arrested by the Pantheerankavu police in Kozhikode, for allegedly distributing posters against the gunning down of Maoists by the Kerala police's Thunderbolt team.
The duo were booked under various sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). On December 20, 2019, the case was taken over by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) from the Kerala police.
Alan's mother in her post further asked Jayarajan, who is the CPI(M) Kannur unit secretary, to show one SFI worker who had been 'converted into a Maoist' by Alan.
"Do you think that SFI members have no awareness about the ideology of their organization? Can you, as an example, show one SFI worker who Alan has converted into a Maoist? Comrade, you should have been very careful while making such statements in a public platform," the post read.
She also said that she and her husband will continue to fight to prove their son's innocence and signed off as 'Alan's secular mother'.
Sabitha Sekher was responding to statements made by Jayarjajan on Friday, during a talk at the 4-day Kerala Literature Festival currently taking place in Kozhikode. Jayarajan claimed that the party's inquiry found that Alan and Thaha were SFI members who were working within the organisation to spread maoist ideology.
"They are CPI(M) workers, we have verified this. From our inquiry, we have understood that the two (Alan and Thaha) had already established contacts with Maoists and were doing 'fraction work' within the SFI, by spreading the Maoist ideology within its ranks," Jayarajan remarked.
Regarding UAPA and the NIA's takeover of Alan and Thaha's case, Jayarajan added that the act (UAPA) itself was unlawful and had to be repealed and that the NIA had taken over the case as they knew how the Left government in Kerala would approach a UAPA case.
"Our respected Chief Minister has made one thing clear in the state assembly. When the chargesheet is submitted in a UAPA case, the state government's assent is required. There is a committee that will review the chargesheet before it is submitted. The NIA has now taken up the case knowing the treatment that will be used by the LDF government while submitting chargesheet for such a case," Jayarajan said at KLF.