People's Democracy

KERALA

Criminals Finding Shelter in Ministers’ Offices: DGP

N S Sajith

HINTING at the Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy’s dubious connections with Sarita S Nair, the kingpin of the solar panel scram, and Faiz, a smuggler of gold and fake currencies, K S Balasubramaniam, director general of Kerala Police, recently said in a circular that the ministers’ offices have become the shelter of criminals. The top police officer of the state was of the clear-cut opinion, as expressed in a circular sent to the city police commissioners and district police chiefs, that criminals freely enter and exit these offices and get a chance to engage in fresh illegal activities.

The said letter was sent from Thiruvananthapuram on September 30, 2013, in connection with the formation of a data bank of criminals in the state.

The circular, titled A Security Alert Chart Order Regarding the Security of Chief Minister and Ministers, was issued in the backdrop of the controversies regarding the solar panel scam and the arrest of gold smuggler Faiz. As we know, the extensive media coverage so far has established a clear relationship between these criminals and the chief minister. These criminals are ones who always enjoyed free access to the office of the chief minister and other ministers.

This way the new circular of the director general of police has explicitly justified the allegations of opposition LDF regarding the connection between the chief minister and notorious criminals.

Though the circular speaks in general about “ministers’ offices,” it unequivocally targets the functioning of Oommen Chandy’s office involving gross misuse of power. In the circular, the DGP suggested that if an online criminal data base was prepared the police would be able to check these sorts of intruders. It is amply clear that the doors of the chief minister’s office were kept open to known criminals like Sarita Nair, Faiz and Biju Radhakrishnan despite there being prior knowledge about their antecedents.