Kerala: ‘Pro-women’ CPM forces panchayat vice-president to quit on ‘moral grounds’ over leaked private videos

KOZHIKODE: A UDF woman panchayat vice-president was forced to step down following belligerent protests by CPM demanding her resignation on "moral grounds" after one of her earlier acquaintances purportedly leaked her private videos. The Congress member tendered a letter to DCC president on Wednesday, expressing her willingness to resign from the post in the face of CPM's incessant protests.CPM members had prevented her from speaking in the panchayat board meeting ever since the video clips surfaced on WhatsApp on her wedding day two months ago.

Recounting her harrowing experience, the woman said CPM workers, including fellow panchayat members, took the stand of tarnishing her reputation and destroying her future despite knowing that she was the victim, and it was an attack on her privacy. "It is surprising that a political party which claims to uphold pro-women politics launched such a protest against me. The political move was aimed at dragging an issue in my personal life to the public sphere with an objective to insult me and destroy my life," she said.
Will continue legal fight, says woman
The woman said the protests were carried out even after police registered a case against the person responsible for allegedly leaking the videos under Section 67 of the Information Technology Act. The opposition members had barged into her office room and abused her besides grabbing the mike at a panchayat meeting to prevent her from replying to the charges.
The woman said she would continue her legal fight and the Congress party had offered its support to her to prove her innocence after she expressed her willingness to resign.
In her police complaint, she said the person whom she knew since 2020 had cheated her by sharing videos of WhatsApp conversations by morphing them and capturing them without her consent. She had ended her relationship with the person after it turned toxic.
Meanwhile, a senior CPM panchayat member justified the party's act, saying she should have exerted vigil and should have thought that the video could go public. The video getting shared widely had adversely affected her plans to pursue PhD and join a school as a teacher.