It is official. P Sasi has been elevated to the Kannur district committee of the CPI (M), a year after he was re-inducted into the party. Sasi, a strong face of the party in the northern district was expelled from CPI(M) in July 2011 on moral grounds following a complaint of sexual assault by a woman party colleague.
Sasi was present at the district committee meeting held on Monday. According to sources, Sasi has been given the charge of Thalassery Assembly constituency in the district. Thalassery falls under Vadakara Lok Sabha seat.
The district committee meeting has also decided to appoint MV Jayarajan as the Kannur District Secretary following the resignation of P Jayarajan. P Jayarajan has been picked as the CPI(M) candidate for Vadakara constituency. Jayarajan was made the party district secretary after Sasi was expelled in 2011.
Sasi was expelled from the party in 2011 following allegations of sexual assault by a woman leader of the DYFI. In 2012, TP Nandakumar, editor of Crime Magazine, approached the Hosdurg court accusing Sasi of sexually assaulting the woman. Based on the court’s directions, the police then booked Sasi for rape. He was, however, exonerated in 2016 after the court dismissed the rape case against him without a trial. The court judgment was based on a police finding that the case was baseless. Two years later, he was re-inducted into the CPI(M), and was made branch committee member.
Speculation had been rife that Sasi would be elevated to the district committee after it had sought the permission of the party state committee to reinstate him.
Sasi is also former political secretary to the late three-time Chief Minister EK Nayanar.
A lawyer by profession, he had appeared for the CPI(M) in many cases during the time he had out of the party. He was elected as the CPI(M) district president of the lawyers' organisation in January.
In May 2018 Sasi's brother P Satheesan was arrested on charges of cheating.
In November 2018 the CPI (M) had suspended MLA PK Sasi for six months on complaint of sexual harassment against him by a party colleague.