A well-known post-Marxist Malayalam writer and prominent cultural figure has been booked in two separate sexual harassment cases, both based on complaints lodged by writers in the latest #MeToo allegation to rock Kerala.

On the run after a Dalit woman writer lodged her complaint on July 17, Civic Chandran, 71, has now been booked in a second case after a young woman writer from Kozhikode on Thursday lodged a complaint in Koyilandy.

While the first complainant accused Chandran of sexually harassing her and touching her inappropriately in April, the second complainant alleged that he had misbehaved with her in February 2020.

Apart from penal provisions related to sexual abuse, Chandran has been booked under various sections of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in the first case. A district court in Kozhikode on Saturday posted his anticipatory bail plea to Tuesday.

The writer has been booked under IPC sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 354 A (punishment for sexual harassment) and 354 D (punishment for stalking) apart from relevant provisions in the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in the first case. Sources said similar IPC sections would be included in the second case as well.

Civic Chandran’s original name was C.V. Kuttan Chandran. His friends used to address him by his initials CVK, which eventually morphed into “Civic” that later came to be used as his first name.

About a hundred social and cultural figures recently wrote to chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, seeking his intervention in arresting Chandran whose whereabouts are not known.

The first survivor had recently recounted the horror of being allegedly grabbed and touched by Chandran in a Facebook page titled Women Against Sexual Harassment, which has become a platform for airing such grievances.

She recounted how she met Chandran at a gathering of writers and poets. The writer had groped and tormented her, she said.

“The experience at the hands of Civic Chandran, who was always known as a prominent culture figure and poet, has generated a deep sense of hatred in me. Today I regret not slapping him at that moment,” she stated.

Malayalam poetess Chithira Kusuman came out in support of the first complainant.

“What he did to that girl is much more than what I saw. I feel terribly sad to even think about the mental trauma she has gone through. I am sorry I couldn’t do anything. How big a fight is it to live with dignity and self-respect. I have been told that he has behaved so with more women. Let’s hope he will get the appropriate punishment,” she stated in a Facebook post.

Chandran is a founding member of Janakiya Samskarika Vedika (People’s Cultural Forum), an ultra-Left organisation that backed CPI-ML that came into being in 1977 after the Emergency. He was among those who were jailed during the Emergency.