In the Ashokapuram NGO Colony area near Thudiyalur in Coimbatore, a drunken youth sexually harassed a mentally ill woman who was sitting alone on the road at midnight last week. At that time, a dog nearby chased the youth away and saved the woman. After CCTV footage related to the incident was released, Thudiyalur police arrested a 17-year-old boy. In this situation, after learning about the incident, Koundampalayam MLA Kanimozhi Santhosh made efforts to find the woman’s relatives and hand her over to them. However, it was reported that since the woman’s younger brother is also mentally ill, her mother was struggling to care for them, and with the help of TVK functionaries, she was admitted to a mental health shelter in Karamadai.

In this situation, SDPI party members have accused her of spreading false information and seeking publicity by claiming that MLA Kanimozhi Santhosh admitted the woman to a mental health shelter. “We filed a complaint with the police against the person who sexually harassed the mentally ill woman and ensured legal action was taken. Since the woman was in an unsafe environment, we planned to admit her to a shelter with the consent of her family members. Since the woman’s sister was already staying at a shelter in Mettupalayam, we wanted to admit her there as well and obtained a recommendation letter from Koundampalayam constituency MLA Kanimozhi Santhosh. However, when we went to the Mettupalayam shelter with that recommendation letter, they said, ‘We cannot admit those who are mentally ill from birth,’ and even after a four-hour struggle, they rejected the letter.

Following this, we sought the help of the SDPI party functionaries in Mettupalayam. Only through their continuous efforts was the woman admitted to the mental care facility in Karamadai. This was made possible entirely through the personal efforts of the SDPI functionaries. However, they have spread false information on social media and in the media, claiming that MLA Kanimozhi Santhosh personally stood by and admitted her to the facility, and that this happened on the instructions of the TVK. He is putting a sticker on what we did and claiming he did it. We completely deny this," they said.
When Kanimozhi was contacted for an explanation regarding this, MLA Santhosh did not respond. So we asked her husband, Santhosh Kumar, for an explanation. "Since a request came from the mosque, the MLA gave a recommendation letter to admit the woman to a mental health shelter. We, along with Muslim friends, admitted the woman to the shelter. We did not know they were SDPI party members. We did not inform the press that we had admitted the woman to the shelter. It was only the party's lower-level functionaries who gave the information," he said.
