Kerala police have expressed inability to book a CPM legislator accused of sexual harassment because of the absence of a complaint from either the woman or her relatives.

Although the Kerala Students’ Union, affiliated to the Congress, and the ABVP, associated with the RSS, had sought legal action against CPM legislator P.K. Sasi, the Palakkad police superintendent has written to state police chief Loknath Behera that the woman had even refused to register her statement.

The woman, a DYFI leader from Palakkad, had last month taken up the matter with the Kerala CPM leadership seeking action against Sasi, who represents Shoranur in the same district.

The matter came to light only after she wrote to party national general secretary Sitaram Yechury and the politburo earlier this month.

Sources said Palakkad police had informed DGP Behera why they couldn’t book Sasi. Attempts to record the woman’s statement has yielded no result. Her family members, too, have not been forthcoming, a source said.

“Under such circumstances it becomes very difficult for the police to do anything,” the source said.

The Congress and the BJP have organised separate protests demanding Sasi’s arrest.

The MLA has all along claimed innocence and alleged a “conspiracy” against him.

The CPM state committee will meet for a two-day session beginning on Sunday.

The controversy over Sasi has erupted at a time the Left Democratic Front government has just begun to breathe easy after a minister was acquitted of charges of sexual misconduct.

Transport minister A.K. Saseendran, a member of the Nationalist Congress Party that is a constituent of the LDF, had to resign in March 2017

after a Malayalam channel played a purported audio clip of his sleaze chat with a woman.

A court acquitted him early this year when the woman, who was a reporter allegedly looking for a juicy story, backed off, saying she was not sure if the person on the phone was Saseendran.

He has since been reinstated as transport minister.