League attacks Kerala chief minister’s office

KOZHIKODE - The Indian Union Muslim League Saturday accused the Kerala chief minister’s office of conspiring to rake up the ice cream parlour sex scandal case in which the party’s leader P.K. Kunhalikutty was involved.

We have evidence to prove that a conspiracy was hatched in the office of Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan to malign our party. We will make it public very soon, said the party’s Lok Sabha member E.T. Mohammed Basheer.

The IUML’s top leaders met in a hurriedly called meeting Saturday to discuss the controversy.

The meeting followed Kunhalikutty’s disclosure in a television interview Friday that the latest allegations against him were raised with the help of India Vision channel.

Former IUML minister and party office bearer M.K. Muneer is the channel’s chairman. There have been media reports about alleged intra-party rivalry between Kunhalikutty and Muneer.

Basheer added: The manner in which India Vision took up the issue is against all media ethics. We have found that Muneer had no role in it. We will reveal more about the conspiracy after a meeting Sunday, which will be attended by the party’s national president, federal minister E. Ahamed.”

The case of sexual abuse of a minor girl, which involved Kunhalikutty, a former industry minister, was closed by the courts, including the Supreme court, in 2006.

The alleged sex racket in early 1990s used an ice cream parlour in Kozhikode as its base, giving the scandal its name.

The case once again hit the headlines last Friday when Kunhalikutty said he faced a threat to his life from K.A. Rauf, his close relative (their wives are sisters), and that he suspected a forged CD was to be released soon.

Rauf later named two former high court judges, Narayana Kurup and K. Thankappan, who, he alleged, were instrumental in making the case favourable for the ex-minister.