Kerala: IUML student leader arrested for making sexually coloured remarks on women

He has been charged under sections 354 (A)(I)(IV) (physical contact and advances involving unwelcome and explicit sexual overtures and making sexually coloured remarks) and 509 (insulting the modesty of women) of the IPC in a case filed at the Vellayil police station in Kozhikode, an officer said. He was questioned and taken into custody Friday by officers at the Chemmangad police station.

In August, ten leaders of Haritha, the women’s wing of MSF, had approached the Kerala state women’s panel with a complaint against Navas, MSF Malappuram district president M Kabeer and district general secretary VA Wahab. The women leaders alleged that the three men made sexually coloured remarks against them at a meeting of MSF office-bearers on June 24.

They said they had approached the women’s panel as they did not get a satisfactory response from the IUML leadership on the charges against Navas and others. The complainants wanted the three men to be removed from their positions.

Irked by Haritha leaders’ complaint to the women’s panel, the IUML initially freezed the state committee of the outfit and later dissolved it on charges of ‘grave indiscipline.’ The party had attempted to work out a “compromise” in the issue by getting Navas and others to apologise for their remarks in exchange for lifting the freeze on the Haritha state committee. Though Navas “expressed regret” over the incident, he stuck to his claim that his words did not contain malicious intent.