Kerala SNDP leader in the defensive over close confidant's death

Vellapally Natesan, who has remained as an unchallenged leader of the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP) that represents the Hindu Ezhava community in Kerala over the last two decades, is now in the defensive as another leader of SNDP who ended life on Wednesday, allegedly accused Natesan of making him scapegoat in a cheating case.

While the anti-Natesan groups have found it as an opportunity to put an end to Natesan's supremacy, the ruling left-front government may face embarrassment as Natesan was close with the left-front. Natesan's son and Bharath Dharma Jana Sena (BDJS) president Thushar Vellapally, who contested against Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad, is NDA convenor in Kerala.

KK Mahesan, who was a close confidant of Natesan and secretary of the Kanichikulangara union of SNDP, was found hanging in the union office, which is close to Natesan's house in Alappuzha district, on Wednesday. Close on the heels various letters, purported to be suicide notes of Mahesan, are doing the rounds in the social media.

One of the letters says that Mahesan was being made a scapegoat in an ongoing Crime Branch probe into an Rs. 1.5 crore cheating case pertaining to a micro-finance scheme of the SNDP. Another letter says that he and his wife will end life in front of Natesan's house if Natesan tries to trap him in the case.

Mahesan, who was state coordinator of the microfinance scheme, was said to be given the responsibility of giving training to the members and was not involved in the financial dealings. But he is also among the eight persons arraigned in the case, including Natesan and Thushar.

Mahesan was recently quizzed by the Crime Branch in this regard and he was under pressure to call on in-person Crime Branch ADGP Tomin Thachankary. These developments made him highly suspicious that he was being made a scapegoat to protect Natesan.

Apart from the anti-Natesan lobbies in the SNDP, Maheshan's family has also come up with the demand for a probe against Natesan in connection with Mahesan's unnatural death.

Natesan came up with a defense that Mahesan ended life owing to character assassination against him by another faction in connection with elections in the SNDP. He also maintained that Mahesan was not involved in the financial dealings pertaining to the micro-finance scheme.

The Hindu Ezhava community constitutes close to 25 percent of Kerala's population and hence Natesan enjoyed political influence.