Many in Kerala still think of Raman Srivastava and Jayaram Padikkal, the state’s two controversial police officers, when they remember Congress doyen and former Chief Minister K Karunakaran.
Former Director General of Police (DGP) Jayaram Padikkal was convicted in the death of Rajan, who died of custodial torture in 1976. The conviction was, however, overturned, and it had been alleged that this was due to the officer’s alleged proximity to Karunakaran.
Raman Srivastava was the southern range Inspector General of Police (IG) when the sensational ISRO espionage case erupted. Karunakaran was ousted from the post of Chief Minister in 1995 for his refusal to suspend Srivastava, whose involvement in the case was investigated by a special team and later by the CBI.
Likewise an officer’s name that would be recounted along with Kerala’s incumbent Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan would be the current state police chief Loknath Behera.
Interestingly, Srivastava, who is also a former Director General of the Border Security Force (BSF), is now Pinarayi Vijayan’s police advisor.
From the initial days of his rule as the CM to the present, Pinarayi Vijayan has been accused of covering up Behera’s misdeeds.
The CM himself handles the Home portfolio, and the excesses and lapses of the police force has so far shadowed the achievements of the Left Democratic Front government in every other field to a large extent.
Last Monday, Pinarayi rejected the Congress-led Opposition’s demand for a CBI probe into the missing rifles and live cartridges, and into Behera violating norms for purchasing vehicles for the force. In a strange move, the Home Department had approved the purchase of vehicles by Behera even though he hadn’t followed procedure.
While the Opposition targeted Behera, who according to the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) was found violating norms and diverting norms in the purchase of luxury vehicles and constructing villas, Pinarayi had even said that it was not fair to tarnish the image of someone who was not present in the House. Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala then accused Pinarayi of whitewashing Behera while Congress legislator PT Thomas alleged that Pinarayi was using Behera’s Delhi links to save him from the Lavalin case.
The two-decade-old Lavalin case refers to an agreement with Canadian company SNC Lavalin in 1997 when Pinarayi was the Power Minister. The agreement to repair three hydroelectric projects caused an estimated loss of Rs 266 crore to the exchequer.
Speaking to TNM, Congress leader and former Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan said, “The CM has a stern stand on everything but when comes to Behera he resorts to silence. He himself should explain the reason behind the silence.”
Thiruvanchoor added that it’s imperative that the government probe such grave allegations against a senior police officer, particularly when the discrepancies have been found by the CAG and are not politically motivated allegations.
“The CM should explain why he has no control over the police force,” he said.
PT Thomas told TNM that it’s a conspiring group consisting of Behera and Srivastava that rules the Kerala police from top to bottom and alleged that the Kerala CM is under the grip of this conspiring team.
Behera has previously worked at the CBI, and with the National Investigation Agency (NIA), being one of its founding members.
In the Budget session of the Assembly, Thomas had accused Behera of violating norms in purchasing police vehicles, which the ruling front condemned as leakage of the CAG report.
“When Kerala Kaumudi journalist BC Jojo exposed the Palmolein oil import scam in 1991 that implicated Karunakaran, he had mentioned the findings of the CAG report in his article. The CPI(M) then moved an adjournment motion in the Assembly with the then MLA VS Achuthanandan though the CAG report had been leaked and was officially released only later. Now Pinarayi is more keen on finding out how the CAG report was leaked rather than on the findings of the report. Also the LDF now forgets that they have in the past made many moves against Srivastava,” Thomas said.
The CAG, Thomas added, couldn’t find the missing rifles despite investigating for 1.5 years.
“But a Crime Branch officer found the missing rifles within hours. Also it’s the NIA or the CBI that should probe a case in which a DGP and police advisor are under the scanner, but here a junior officer investigated it. The question is how the rifles and cartridges went missing, not during whose tenure they went missing. Behera has given a free hand to Galaxon, a company that doesn’t have even an office, to function from the police headquarters, which exposes the nexus between the CM and police officials,” Thomas added.
Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) President Mullappally Ramachandran had levelled even more serious allegations against Behera when he was appointed the head of the state police force.
Mullappally was the Minister of State of Home Affairs in the first UPA government. He had alleged that Behera tried to absolve Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah of several criminal cases, including the 2004 Ishrat Jahan encounter case.
“Behera was one of the NIA officials who was investigating the case. He whitewashed Modi and Shah in his report, which amused all of us,” Mullappally had said.
With elections around the corner the Pinarayi government might have to pay a heavy price for covering up the misdeeds of the police department.