A woman professor alleged that she was threatened by SFI goons led by Rahim to release university fund of Rs 7 lakh illegally
Members of Rajya Sabha are requested to be cautious of A A Rahim of the CPI(M) who is certain to get elected from Kerala Legislative Assembly in the biennial election to be held to the Upper House on March 31.
The CPI(M) has fielded Rahim as the party nominee as part of its appeasement policy towards the Islamists. The CPI, the poor cousin of the Marxists have nominated P Santhosh Kumar and both the candidates are sure to sail through the polls comfortably.
Rahim, president of DYFI, the CPI(M)’s frontal organisation for youths, is the PRIME ACCUSED in the molestation of a lady professor at University College, Thiruvananthapuram. The incident happened on 30 March 2017 as Rahim and his gang of SFI activists gheraoed and abused Prof T Vijayalakshmi, director, Students Service Centre, for her refusal to illegally sanctioning Rs 7 lakh to the students towards a programme for which there was no official permission.
Rahim was syndicate member of the university in his capacity as leader of the SFI. Academically, he would not have made it to the post of even an attender in the University, according to SFI activists themselves. It was his minority background which came to his aid to become the DYFI all India president. He succeeded Mohammed Riyaz, the second husband of Veena, daughter of Pinarayi Vijayan. The marriage helped Riyaz to get a candidature in the 2021 assembly election and his subsequent inclusion in the council of ministers led by Vijayan as the No.2 minister.
Riyaz had to give up his presidentship of the DYFI following his inclusion in the cabinet. He used his influence to get Rahim appointed as the DYFI president and also ensured that he was nominated as the party candidate for the biennial election to Rajya Sabha.
Vijayalakshmi had recounted her nightmarish experiences from Rahim, whom she alleged of physically assaulting her and abusing her in the most obscene language. “Please remember that I am a teacher and well-wisher of the student community. But they gheraoed me for four hours, pulled my hair, hit on my head, sang obscene songs when I refused to sign on the dotted lines to release the Rs 7 lakh demanded by Rahim. Though I complained to university authorities and the government department, no action was taken against anybody,” Vijayalakshmi told Shajan Zacharia, the editor-in-chief of popular Malayalam news portal Marunadan in an interview.
“SFI students had threatened to kill me. So, I am sitting at home without even going outside. I have given a complaint to the police, the Chief Minister and even the Governor,” she had told mediapersons after the incident. Rahim, who is known as Prof Luttappi in social media pages, is not considered as a good character even by the CPI(M) cadres. “He is an Islamic fanatic like Mohammed Riyaz. He does not have any inhibition in abusing people with different political ideologies during TV channel debates,” a CPI(M) leader told Indus Scrolls.
The case against Rahim and his cabal which was adjourned many times due to the pandemic situation in Kerala is coming up for hearing before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court, Thiruvananthapuram in April. Though the State Police was reluctant to accept the complaint filed by Prof Vijayalakshmi, the intervention of Raj Bhavan (while P Sathashivam was the Governor) made the police file a FIR against Rahim and his henchmen. “But the charges slapped against him and others are very weak,” said the Professor.
Prof Vijayalakshmi, who was then student’s services director, of the Kerala University, was gheraoed for nearly four hours by Rahim (who was a post-graduate student at that time) and his gang of friends for making the former sign finance bills in violation of all norms.
This is a reminder to Rajya Sabha members, especially women members, about the antecedents of the new member getting elected from Kerala.
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