Death of a contractor in Kerala: Five local Congress leaders arrested

Joy, the contractor of a hospital building constructed by a trust that’s run by some Congress leaders, was allegedly not paid for his work.

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In the wake of the alleged suicide of a building contractor in Kerala’s Kannur, the police have arrested five local functionaries of the Congress party in Cherupuzha in a case of misappropriation of funds of the K Karunakaran Smaraka Trust. The trust came under the scanner after a contractor – Joseph alias Joy – who was working on a hospital building constructed under the trust, was found dead on the terrace of the building on September 6.

The arrested Congress leaders – K Kunjikrishnan Nair, Roshy Jose, TV Abdul Saleem, J Sebastian and C Skaria – are also the functionaries of the trust. While Kunjikrishnan is the chairman of the trust, Roshy Jose is the secretary, TV Abdul Saleem is the treasurer and Sebastian and Skaria are the joint secretaries.

“They were arrested under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property),” Cherupuzha Station House Officer Mahesh Nair told TNM. They were held on charges of financial misappropriation, following a complaint filed by James Panthamkkal and VP Dasan, the vice-chairman of the trust, reported The Hindu.

Joseph, alias Joy, a contractor based in Cherupuzha, allegedly killed himself after the trust failed to pay him Rs 1.34 crore, for constructing a hospital building under the trust. Joy’s family members had alleged foul play in his death and Martin, Joy’s elder brother, had filed a complaint with the Cherupuzha police to probe his death. Congress leaders Kunjukrishnan Nair, Abdul Saleem and Roshy Jose were named in the complaint.

The trust has been formed by a group of leaders in the memory of the doyen of Congress in Kerala, Late K Karunakaran, whom the party workers and other leaders endearingly called ‘Leader’.

According to Joy’s family members, the non-payment by the trust had put Joy in a financial crisis and therefore he was under mental stress.

Joy had left his house on September 5. The next day, his body was found on the terrace of the hospital building.

Also read: Probe the trust he worked for: Family of Kerala contractor alleges foul play in his death