Air India Crash Victim Insulted: Kerala Official Suspended Over Facebook Remarks

On Friday, June 13, A. Pavithran, the Deputy Tahsildar of Vellarikundu Taluk in Kasaragod district, Kerala, was suspended by the district collector for making misogynistic and casteist remarks on Facebook about a Malayali nurse who died in the recent Air India crash.


Pavintran’s comments insulted womanhood and brought shame to the revenue department and it led to widespread backlash on social media. In Facebook comment, he wrote: "There was one Nair woman (among the dead). The government of Kerala gave her a job. She took leave and went abroad for... Got what she deserved."

Ranjitha Gopakumaran Nair, a 39-year-old nurse from Pathanamthitta district, was one of the victims of the sad Air India crash in Ahmedabad on Thursday. The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, intended for Gatwick, crashed barely minutes after takeoff from Ahmedabad airport at 1:39 p.m., killing hundreds. The plane was carrying 242 people: 230 passengers and 12 crew.

Ranjitha's two children, 12 and 15 years old are left behind. Ranjitha became the pillar of her family after her father passed away a few years ago, providing utmost care for her children and her mother, who was battling cancer. 

Collector Inbasekar stated in the suspension order that Pavithran was a serial offender and had damaged the Revenue Department's credibility with the position, even though the Deputy Tahsildar retracted the post within hours and apologized the next day. On September 12,2024 he made a similar behavior where he lashed out at the kanhangad MLA E Chandrasekharan Nair.

The Congress’s Kerala Students’ Union (KSU) has written to the Collector and the District Police Chief B V Vijaya Bharath Reddy, telling suspension is not enough and demanded the authorities to launch criminal proceedings against him as he is a repeat offender. He need to be arrested and charged with a crime by the police. Jawad Puthur, the district president of KSU, stated, "He was suspended earlier as well, but he is back in the job doing the same thing."  


Report By- 
Amalendu k 
Student,
Journalism and Mass Communication 
Amity University Mumbai

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