The nonagenarian human rights activist would continue to mount public opinion against fake encounters and police atrocities.
Published Sep 13, 2023 | 10:51 PM ⚊ Updated Sep 13, 2023 | 10:52 PM
A Vasu. Photo: Hafeesa P K
A court in Kerala’s Kozhikode district on Wednesday, 13 September, acquitted Ayinoor Vasu — popularly known as “GROW” Vasu — for lack of evidence in a case registered against him seven years ago.
Arrested on 29 July for leading a protest against the extrajudicial killing of two Maoists, the 93-year-old human rights activist and former Naxalite had been in remand for the past 47 days.
Maoists Koppam Devarajan and Ajitha Kaveri were killed inside the Nilambur forests in the Malappuram district in November 2016. Vasu and others have been claiming that they were gunned down in a fake encounter.
Acquitting Vasu, Magistrate VP Abdul Sathar of Judicial First Class Magistrate Court at Kunnamangalam observed that the prosecution had failed to prove any charge against the nonagenarian, who used his democratically available rights to protest against what he believed were fake encounter killings by the Kerala Police.
While leading a protest along with a group of rights activists outside the mortuary of the Government Medical College Hospital in Kozhikode, where the bodies of Devaraj and Kaveri were brought for an autopsy, Vasu had alleged that the two were killed through treachery and that it was not an encounter.
The police registered a case against Vasu on charges of unlawful assembly and assault or criminal force to deter a public servant from discharging their duty.
When Vasu was produced in court after his arrest from his residence on 29 July, he told the magistrate that his protest was not against the court but against the deeds of the police and the state’s Left Front government led by Pinarayi Vijayan.
A Vasu. (Praveen K)
The court was forced to send him to judicial custody when the nonagenarian declined to take bail or pay a fine for the offence. He also argued the case on his own.
When the magistrate said that all citizens were bound to follow the law in the country and that he could fight and win the case in court, Vasu said that he could not accept two types of justice being meted out to the people.
When the court asked him if he was willing to pay a fine amounting to less than ₹1,000, as done by some of the co-accused, Vasu said that he had been following some principles in life, and would like to continue to uphold them.
In the past 47 days, he was produced before the court three times, but Vasu stuck to his decision. He also raised slogans in court.
Vasu also used his court appearances to come down heavily on the Vijayan government, which, according to him, was almost equal to the BJP governments at the Centre when it came to their scant regard for human rights.
He told the court that poverty, inequality, and injustice were creating rebels in the country, and gunning them done from behind would not solve the harsh social reality.
On Tuesday, he was allowed to speak for 10 minutes on the case.
The same court had acquitted 17 of the 20 accused in the case for want of evidence in March 2018, and two other accused later appeared before the court, pleaded guilty, and remitted the fine.
“The government, the police, and the court portrayed the protests as if we had committed a big crime. There are two types of justice. Not even a single case has been registered against the police force — and its political masters — which killed eight people in fake encounters during the time of the first Vijayan government,” Vasu told the court.
A Vasu at his residence. (Praveen K)
When the magistrate asked whether it would mean having to go to jail again, Vasu said that he had spent more time in jail than he had spent in his house.
Vasu also told the court that while Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was said to be the tallest Communist leader in Kerala, he was trying to become the biggest corporate.
His jail term as a remand prisoner evoked large-scale protests against the Vijayan government, and the protestors included the Leader of the Opposition VD Satheesan, who met him in jail.
There may be people who disagree with Vasu’s ideology, but the 93-year-old’s fighting spirit should be acknowledged, Satheesan said.
“The so-called Communist government in Kerala gunned down eight human beings as if they were wild hares. They intentionally killed those people by pointing the guns at their chests. The government neutralised the protests against the inhuman killings in the past seven years. I continue to demand a judicial commission to probe the fake encounter killings. The killers must be punished appropriately,” Vasu told reporters after his release from jail.
“This Marxist government that keeps Che Guevara’s flag afloat has committed a grave crime. I will continue to fight and raise slogans against injustice if life permits me,” he said.
Across the state, rights activists and ordinary people protested against the incarceration of Vasu. They demanded the state government withdraw the case against Vasu.
Vasu had led a workers’ movement against the Birla-owned Gwalior Rayons at Mavoor in Kozhikode, forcing the closure of the pulp factory that was heavily polluting the river Chaliyar and ruining the livelihood of thousands of families.
The former Naxalite earned the sobriquet GROW Vasu by heading the workers’ movement under the Gwalior Rayons Organisation of Workers (GROW).
On 24 November, 2016, the anti-Maoist Thunderbolt wing of the Kerala Police shot dead Devarajan, said to be a Central Committee member of the banned CPI (Maoist), and Kaveri, a claimed cadre of the Maoist outfit, in the Padukka forest in the Karulai range of the Nilambur South division.
“We don’t know what happened. The forest area (15 km from Padukka forest station) had been cordoned off, and even journalists were not allowed to go there,” he had then told reporters.
Since Vijayan came to power in 2016, eight suspected Maoists were gunned down.
The most recent Maoist killings took place in November 2020, when S Velmurugan from Periyakulam in the Theni district of Tamil Nadu was shot dead by the police at an isolated forest region in Padinjarathara in Wayanad.
Velmurugan’s encounter occurred 19 months after 25-year-old suspected Maoist CP Jaleel was shot dead similarly at a private tourist resort in Wayanad. Police said that on 6 March, 2019, Jaleel and another Maoist came to Upavan Resort at Lakkidi to demand money from its owners.
Jaleel died instantly after being shot in the head and shoulder, while his companion allegedly escaped into the nearby forests.
On 28 October, 2019, four suspected Maoists — Manivasakam, Karthi, Aravind, and Rema — were killed by the Thunderbolt wing inside the forests at Manjeekandi in Kerala’s major tribal region, Attappady.
All the deceased were natives of Tamil Nadu, and there were reports that they were planning to surrender due to a resource crunch and health complications.
In the days following the Manjeekandi incident, the Kerala Home Department slapped the draconian
Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act of 1967 — UAPA for short — on two students in Kozhikode, who incidentally were card-carrying members of the CPI(M), for distributing pamphlets demanding justice for the slain Maoists.
Three years later, a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court gave them bail following a massive outcry for justice.
