The Hindu : Kerala News : Bid to divert attention from controversy: UDF

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Monday, Jul 21, 2008
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Kerala

Bid to divert attention from controversy: UDF

Staff Reporter

Kunhalikutty says Baby influencing probe into death

MALAPPURAM: The Indian Union Muslim League has accused the Left Democratic Front of attempting to divert people’s attention from the controversy over the class VII social science textbook by launching a false propaganda about the death of James Augustine, a primary school headmaster, in the district.

Augustine died after being allegedly roughed up while on his way to attend a cluster meeting to train teachers.

Muslim League State general secretary P.K. Kunhalikutty accused Education Minister M.A. Baby of trying to influence the inquiry into the death. He said the Minister was present in the inquest room when the police and forensic officers examined the body. Mr. Baby had spent about two hours on Sunday morning at the Government Medical College Hospital, Kozhikode, where the inquest and the post-mortem examination were carried out.

“Mr. Baby should not have remained in the inquest room when the surgeons and police officers were doing their work. His presence there will affect the investigation,” said Mr. Kunhalikutty, demanding an impartial inquiry.

Flays Baby

Staff Reporter writes from Alappuzha:

Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee president Ramesh Chennithala has said that Education Minister M.A. Baby should desist from “celebrating” the death. At a press conference here on Sunday, he said the government was unleashing violence to divert public attention from the textbook controversy.

Conspiracy

Staff Reporter writes from Kozhikode:

Youth Congress State president T. Siddique alleged that Education Minister M.A. Baby had conspired to turn the death of the headmaster, who collapsed and died, into a murder and dishearten the agitation demanding withdrawal of the textbook.

He told presspersons here on Sunday that Mr. Baby, Industries Minister Elamaram Karim and other Communist Party of India (Marxist) leaders who said the post-mortem examination pointed to murder were, in fact, celebrating the death of the teacher.

“There is enough evidence to show that Mr. Baby had a role in the conspiracy. The Minister who spent nearly four hours at the Medical College Hospital mortuary had also held discussions with those at the dissection table in the hospital, where nobody was allowed to enter,” he said.

The DYFI unleashed violence in the hospital area.

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