Kerala Women's Commission (KWC) on Monday began an investigation on its own against S. Rajendran, MLA, on the charge of having publicly insulted Devikulam sub-collector, Renu Raj, for her attempt to stop an allegedly illegal construction by the panchayat in ecologically sensitive Munnar in Idukki district.
KWC chairperson, M.C. Josephine, told that the registration of the case against Mr. Rajendran was the Commission's standard response to issues involving alleged denigration of women. Another KWC official said the Commission had taken notice of a widely aired video footage in which Mr. Rajendran was seen questioning the mental faculties of the woman 2015 batch IAS officer. He said the Commission would soon issue a notice to the legislator representing Devikulam constituency.
The incident that cast Mr. Rajendran in the eye of a political storm occurred on Friday when Revenue officials arrived at the behest of the sub-collector to serve a stop memo to prevent the construction of a shopping complex in land owned by the local panchayat. Mr. Rajendran allegedly made the purported comment when he tried to turn back the Revenue officials on the ground that they had no authority to serve the panchayat a stop memo for attempting to build on its land.