So the first writ filed at the High Court after the Emergency was lifted was Professor Eachara Varier v. the Government of Kerala. Advocate Ram Kumar played the major role. It was filed on February 25, 1977. The next day all the major newspapers in Kerala, and also outside the state, carried details of the writ. The news spread through Kerala like wild fire. There was such a huge crowd in the High Court on the day the writ was considered. Because of this crowd, the case was shifted to the most spacious hall in the High Court. Rajan’s case was being felt among the people.
The Kerala State Assembly was boiling over after the heat of the Emergency. On February 26, one member raised Rajan’s case in the Assembly. Mr. Karunakaran jumped up from his seat and declared that Rajan had not even been arrested. Marxist leader Mr. T. K. Ramakrishnan passed this information to Mr. Eeswara Iyer then and there. He in turn sent for Mr. Ram Kumar and me, and suggested that we must include Mr. Karunakaran in the list of the accused. Accordingly Mr. Eeswara Iyer and Mr. Ram Kumar redrafted the writ, and submitted it to the court the next day.
Up to then I had managed the case virtually on my own. Knowing this, some of my friends joined together to form the Rajan Case Aid Committee, with Professor Manmadhan as president, Mr. Ramachandran Potty of the Gandhi Peace Foundation as convener, and Mr. P. C. Abraham, the industrialist, as treasurer. Senior advocates and political personalities were among the members.
Mr. P. C. Abraham issued a press statement requesting financial help from the general public. Money orders started flooding into his house as if it was an historical event. This was the only request made by the treasurer to the public. Nobody approached anyone personally for any financial help. After the case, a lot of money was left over. The committee decided to utilize it to help victims of torture from the Emergency suffering the aftereffects. The treasurer issued a press statement to that effect, requesting such persons to contact the committee.
We received a lot of applications, and deserving people were given aid. Most approaching the committee came from areas like Chathamangalam, Kayanna and Karachundu. When we learnt of their suffering, the horrible scenario of the Emergency became clearer. Many of them, including Mr. Koru from the Engineering College hostel, were still suffering. Mr. Chathamangalam Rajan, a teacher in a typewriting institute, became so sick that he couldn’t work anymore. All this scared me more and more.
