PATHANAMTHITTA, NOV 3: The Kerala Congress got a taste of its own medicine after it went to town blaming the CPM for the recent hooch deaths. An autodriver's statement to the Adoor police that he had developed uneasiness after consuming liquor at a bar owned by Congress leader and Konni MLA Adoor Prakash's mother, has left the party red-faced.According to police sources, Ajayachandran Nair, who was admitted to Adoor Taluk Hospital on October 22, had reportedly told the duty doctor that he had consumed liquor from Yamuna Bar.The doctor then referred the patient to the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital as a "suspected case of poisoning".Adoor police then recorded Nair's statement from the hospital that he felt dizziness and nausea after drinking there and another bar at Pathanapuram.However, Nair then disappeared under mysterious circumstances from the hospital on the same night. Despite consistent efforts, the police is yet to trace him for a detailed interrogation.Later, Adoor police registered a case against Yamuna Bar under Abkari Act 57 (A). There has already been a case registered against the same hotel by the Adoor Excise Range officer based on a chemical report of the samples collected from the bar in September.The police-excise team also launched a joint raid on the bar and a retail shop allegedly run by some of the MLA's close associates in Pathanamthitta. In the six-hour raid conducted on the bar, the officials collected fresh samples of Indian Made Foreign Liquor.Predictably, the CPM is all set to unleash a campaign against the MLA and the Congress leadership here. The party's Adoor area committee secretary K P Udayabhanu said here today that the CPM "would tear the sham of the Congress party by exposing the unholy nexus" of senior Congress leaders with the illicit liquor mafia in the state. The party has decided to begin with an evening dharna at Adoor today, he said.The DYFI is also planning to launch a separate campaign demanding that Yamuna bar be closed. In a statement issued here today, DYFI district secretary R Sanalkumar demanded the MLA's resignation and that he be sacked from the party.Meanwhile, DCC president Peelipose Thomas hit out at the CPM leadership for what he described as their malicious campaign against Adoor Prakash. He wanted the CPM state leadership to come out with a reasonable explanation for reinstating nearly a dozen senior excise-police officials who were sacked after their names appeared in a diary seized from Abkari contractor Yamaha Surendran. The smear campaign unleashed against Adoor Prakash would be faced politically, he said.
