Amidst speculation that he has offered to quit over the rape complaint filed against his son, CPI(M) Kerala secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has denied the reports, claiming that there are ‘ill-motivated intentions’ behind the rumour and nobody in the party was protecting his son.
Interacting with the media for the first time since his eldest son Binoy Kodiyeri was booked for rape, Kodiyeri stated that neither he nor his party has protected the accused and will not do so in the future as well.
“It is Binoy’s individual responsibility to prove the truth. No one should commit any crime thinking that either the party or I would protect them. The stand of the party has been made clear by the party General Secretary. The policy of party members is not to protect people who face such allegations and my stand is the same,” he said.
A Mumbai-based woman on 13 June had filed a complaint at Mumbai’s Oshiwara police station alleging that Binoy had raped her for years after promising to marry her and that she has an eight-year-old child born out of the relationship.
The woman, a native of Bihar, also stated in her complaint that she was not aware that Binoy was already married. Binoy has denied the allegations and has been absconding.
Multiple media reports had reported that his father Balakrishnan offered to quit as the CPI(M) state secretary over the charges against his son.
Kodiyeri is undergoing Ayurveda treatment and, on the sidelines of the state committee meeting on Saturday, met media persons at the party headquarters at AKG centre and issued a clarification.
“The discussions within the party cannot be disclosed publicly. The intention behind the rumour ill-motivated. The party would have sacked me had I been guilty," he said.
Kodiyeri said that Binoy had met him once while his treatment was going on but now he is not aware of his son’s current whereabouts.
"Since he lives separately with his family, there was never a day to day communication," he said. "I am not a part of the Mumbai police, let the legal system find it out. I came to know about it after the complaint surfaced, I have not contacted him after that," he added.
Kodiyeri rejected the allegations that the Mumbai-based woman who filed the police complaint against Binoy had talked to him.
"Also the allegation that my wife went to Mumbai to meet the woman has been written in the complaint which is under the consideration of the court. Hence it is inappropriate for me to comment on it,” Kodiyeri said.
This is not the first case that has been filed against Binoy. He was in January 2018 booked in a Rs 13 crore money laundering case in Dubai. Later, Binoy received a certificate from the Dubai police which said that no case had been registered against him.
"I can't check what all he has done behind my back," Kodiyeri said when asked about the money laundering charges.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)