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Kerala's ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Wednesday removed Mr P.S. Jayachandran from all party posts and committees after he was accused of kidnapping his daughter's newborn child and later handing it over to an orphanage for adoption.
The party has also decided to conduct an inquiry into the case.
Mr Jayachandran was a local committee member in Thiruvananthapuram, the state's capital, and a senior leader of the party's trade union wing, Centre for Indian Trade Unions.
A party leader said the decision to strip Mr Jayachandran was taken by the local committee in Peroorkada on the direction of the district committee.
His daughter, former student activist Anupama S. Chandran, who struggled to get the party to act against Mr Jayachandran for months, said the belated move is an eyewash and demanded a state committee-level probe into the missing child's case.
"Nothing will emerge if the case is investigated by the local committee. I want a high-level inquiry and women leaders should be part of it," she said in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday.
Mr Jayachandran was not available for comment.
Earlier, he said the party was aware of everything, but it disowned him when it became a national issue.
A senior CPI(M) leader told the Hindustan Times that further action will be taken against Mr Jayachandran and officials of the child welfare committee who allegedly colluded with him in the adoption.
A Thiruvananthapuram court was scheduled to hear the anticipatory bail petitions filed by Mr Jayachandran and five others on Thursday.
In a police complaint filed last week, Ms Chandran alleged that her father took away her child born in October last year and handed over the newborn to a state child welfare council-run orphanage.
She claimed the child was reportedly given to a family from Andhra Pradesh in violation of adoption rules.
The 24-year-old also accused her parents of snatching away her newborn as they disapproved her relationship with her Dalit (untouchable caste) husband.
But Mr Jayachandran said he sent the baby to the government-run children's home in Thiruvananthapuram with his daughter's consent and contended that his daughter also signed a legal document to this effect.
Ms Chandran rebutted him, insisting that she was forced to sign the document. "My father is misleading the investigation," she said.
"At times he says the child was shifted to Tamil Nadu and later he said the baby was in the children's home in Thiruvananthapuram.
"The DNA test of two children admitted at the same period in the children's home was also done but they did not match us."
Ms Chandran claimed that, though she had complained against her father to the police several times since April, they were reluctant to register a case against him and other family members.
Officers at the Peroorkada police station said a case was registered earlier this week against six people, including her parents, sister and husband and her father's two friends and the delay happened as they were awaiting legal opinion.
Ms Chandran's one-day fast before the state secretariat on Saturday to find her child attracted national attention.
Many senior leaders of the CPI(M) including politburo members Brinda Karat and M.A. Baby decried the state government's inaction in the case.
The issue also figured prominently in the state assembly.
Opposition leader V.D. Satheesan termed it an "honour kidnapping", while state Health Minister Veena George insisted that all procedures were followed when the baby was given for adoption.
A family court has stayed the baby's adoption till Nov 1.
Indo-Asian News Service
