Bomb hurled at former Kerala college principal's house after she spoke against Women's Wall

A crude bomb was hurled at the house P V Pushpaja, former principal of Nehru Arts and Science College at Pollapoyil near Cheruvathur. The house was attacked on January 2 and it came to light when she and her husband returned from Kochi on Sunday. In a statement to Cheemeni police, she said that she suspected the CPM to be behind the attack.

On January 2, Pushpaja had given an interview to Janam TV opposing the Women's Wall. After the interview, she and her husband left for Kochi to attend a wedding of a relative, an officer said. The same day, the CPM took out a march to their house to protest against her statement. "She was informed of the protest march by her relative over the phone,-" the officer said. However, she was not informed about the attack. Police said they found steel casing from the sit out.

When contacted, Pushpaja said the crude bomb shattered the window panes of the balcony and the roof of the car shed. "There are cracks on the wall too," she said. On December 26, she had participated in the Ayyappa Jyothi campaign against women entering Sabarimala, at Cheruvathur. "As a devotee of Ayyappa, I participated in the campaign. I don't get it why my house should be attacked because of that," she said.

The retired teacher was at the receiving end of the pro-Left organisation earlier as well. On March 31, when faculty members of the college gave her a farewell, suspected SFI activists put up a poster on the campus saying, "Homage to the principal who has died in the hearts of the students. A tragedy is over and the campus is getting free."

Later, abusive pamphlets targetting her were distributed in and around Pollapoyil. The bomb attack on the former principal's house exposed the 'terror face' of the CPM, said BJP district president K Shreekanth. "Even days after the house was bombed, the outside world does not know of attack. It shows the terror is party villages," he said.