Kerala Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan has instructed the state Home Department to promptly address a false campaign aimed at CPI(M) Central Committee member P.K. Sreemathy. Sreemathy lodged a formal complaint alleging a coordinated effort to tarnish her reputation through fake social media and online posts. The Chief Minister swiftly passed on the complaint to Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala for immediate legal action.
The government’s involvement became necessary as new information revealed that the accusations were based on mistaken identity. The alleged pension fraud was not linked to the CPI(M) leader but to another individual, P.K. Sreemathy, the deceased wife of freedom fighter and Congress leader P.R. Krishnan. She had been receiving the family pension after her husband’s passing in 1993 until her death in February 2020.
The son of the deceased, Ajith (Printex Ajith), clarified that no one had received the pension in the past six years. He expressed that his father’s name was needlessly dragged into controversy and suggested that the CPI(M) leader might have been targeted due to name similarities or as part of a deliberate misinformation campaign.
The controversy stemmed from an RTI response regarding pensions for former MLAs. The document separately mentioned the family pension of “P.K. Sreemathy, wife of P.R. Krishnan,” and the pension details of another former MLA, P.K. Sreemathy of Kannur. These entries were allegedly distorted to create confusion, leading to the spread of false information.
Sreemathy, emotionally affected, clarified to the media that she is unjustly targeted. She vowed to take legal action against those responsible for spreading the false accusations. She disclosed that leaders from Congress and BJP had reached out to support her. With the government’s directive for immediate action and legal steps being considered, the situation has transitioned from a misinformation issue to a test of the government’s stance against fake news.
