Kerala ADM suicide case: Court defers CPI-M leader Divya's bail plea till Nov 8

Kannur, Nov 5 (IANS) A court in Kannur on Tuesday deferred till Friday the bail plea of CPI-M leader P. P. Divya in connection with the suicide case of Kannur ADM Naveen Babu.

Divya's counsel said she was innocent and had done no wrong trying to establish that Babu had taken a bribe, which was strongly opposed.

The roles of Kannur District Collector Arun Vijayan and T.V. Prasanth, who said he paid a bribe to Babu to get a sanction for his petrol pump, were also raised.

After hearing both sides, the court posted the hearing of the case till Friday.

On November 1, she was questioned by the police for about four hours.

The sequence of events that led to Divya ending up in jail started, when, she despite not being invited, turned up at Babu's send-off function on October 14 and made some critical remarks.

When this incident occurred, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who was presiding over the function, kept mum and did not make any statement after the "uninvited" Divya walked out after making curt remarks against Babu.

Babu died by suicide the very next day (October 15) and following the furore, Divya first resigned as Kannur district panchayath President.

She was on the run for several days after a case was filed against her on October 17.

The media took this case up in a big way and the Congress and the BJP strongly batted for the family of Babu.

Another twist in the case came when the CPI-M Pathanamthitta district committee took a very favourable stand towards the family of Babu dropping enough hints that Divya had done wrong, while the party's Kannur unit extended support to Divya.

Divya surrendered before the police and was sent to a jail in Kannur on October 29 after her anticipatory bail plea was rejected.

--IANS

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