Congress warns Kerala state police chief to behave

Thiruvananthapuram:  Leader of the opposition and former Kerala Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala on Monday warned state police chief Loknath Behra not ‘to dance to the tunes of the corrupt state government led by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’.

Chennithala asked the police chief not to go ahead with the false cases being registered against the opposition legislators, ‘who raise their voice against the corrupt practices of the Vijayan government’.

Chennithala said this while inaugurating a protest against the Vijayan government and the CPI-M, which are currently caught up in some major scams.

“The present police chief is on a mission to trap the Congress legislators who raise their voice against the corrupt Vijayan government. We warn you that if you continue to go ahead with registering false cases against our legislators P.T. Thomas, K.M. Shaji and V.D. Satheeshan, we will take legal steps against you.

“And once the Congress-led UDF government assumes office after the Assembly elections, next year, we will appoint a Commission to probe all your misdeeds,” said Chennithala.

Chennithala said the Comptroller and Auditor General have indicted Behra and the numerous purchases he has undertaken after taking over as the State Police chief.

“No action has been taken on that report as it has been put in the cold storage and the state government is also not acting on it,” added Chennithala.

Behra superannuates next year and in all likelihood he will be moved out as the state Police chief, as the rules of the Election Commission will come into effect, as all officers who have completed a stipulated period in a post will have to be moved out, ahead of the elections.

Incidentally, the day Vijayan assumed office in May 2016, the then state police chief T.P. Senkumar was removed and in came Behra.

However, after a long drawn legal battle, Senkumar managed to get back his chair and when he superannuated, Behra was brought back.