Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) leader and Vadakara MLA KK Rema has filed a complaint against her Balussery counterpart KM Sachin Dev, after he shared her photographs on social media along with a caption indicating that she was faking a hand injury. On Wednesday, March 15, the CPI(M) legislator had posted two photos of Rema on his Facebook page — one of them featuring the Vadakara MLA raising her right hand and pointing a finger at someone, and the other of her sporting a plaster cast on the same hand.
Rema had earlier alleged that the Watch and Ward personnel manhandled her during a protest by the Opposition at the Kerala Assembly on Wednesday, which caused her to suffer an injury on her right hand. The sit-in protest in front of the office of Speaker AN Shamseer had followed a walkout from the Assembly by Opposition leaders, after he denied permission for an adjournment motion over women’s safety in the state.
In his Facebook post later in the day, Sachin made a sly comparison of the incident to a Malayalam movie In Ghost House Inn, in which the antagonist is outed for faking an injury due to a faux pas of wearing the plaster on the wrong hand. Following this, various handles of CPI(M) sympathisers began to circulate what they claimed were photos of Rema’s X-ray scan, along with the allegation that her hands were perfectly fine and that she was faking the fracture to corner the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF).
On Thursday, Rema filed a complaint against Sachin with the Cyber Cell and the Director General of Police, alleging that the MLA was insulting her and demanding the withdrawal of the post. She told TNM that a planned online campaign was being unleashed against her. “I am not sure whether those X-ray photos are fake or they were taken from the hospital. I never claimed that my hand was broken, I had a dislocation in the wrist,” she said, adding that if the X-ray image was leaked from the hospital, the doctor should be answerable.
Rema said that the other photos CPI(M) handles were circulating with the claim that she was faking her injury were not fake, but taken at a different time of the day. “The photo in which I can be seen raising my right hand was taken during the ruckus at the Assembly, when I was questioning the issue. We went to the hospital much later,” she added.
The Congress party has also alleged a targeted attack against Rema. “The CPI(M) uses every opportunity to abuse KK Rema. We will keep her close to us. Kerala is watching how a widow is being taunted,” Opposition leader VD Satheesan told the media. Rema is the wife of slain RMP founder TP Chandrasekharan, who was hacked to death by goons allegedly hired by the CPI(M) in 2012.