Former State Police Chief T.P. Senkumar has said that the team probing the case of sexual assault on an actor should have collected evidence strong enough to ‘break’ the film personalities before conducting a marathon interrogation.
Talking to the media on the sidelines of a seminar here on Friday, Mr. Senkumar said that the investigating team should have collected maximum details about the persons to be interrogated.
They should have been confronted with evidence, which they would have been forced to admit. Interrogation done without such primary work was not of any use, Mr. Senkumar said.
When the media asked whether he was giving a clean chit to actor Dileep by drawing attention to a comment he had made to that effect during the course of an interview he had given earlier in the day, Mr. Senkumar clarified that at a particular point there was no evidence to arraign anyone as accused.
“There might have been doubts. But doubts are no substitute for evidence admissible in a court of law. What was the need to conduct such an interrogation lasting till 1.30 a.m. without making proper preparations,” he said.
Mr. Senkumar said that a meeting an ADGP had with a suspect in the case on the evening of June 26 should be examined by the investigation team.
He further said that the head of the investigation team should have been present during the interrogation, and should have been kept in the loop about such a critical phase of the investigation.
When his attention was drawn to a comment in an interview that ADGP B. Sandhya was engaged in a publicity stunt, Mr. Senkumar said that it was a personal-level chat with the interviewer, and that it was not supposed to be aired.
Asked whether Chief Secretary Nalini Netto, ADGP Tomin Thachankary, and Personal Secretary to the Chief Minister M.V. Jayarajan were together misleading the Chief Minister, Mr. Senkumar said he had indeed “found such actions in some quarters especially by the first two.”
He said his pension papers had been withheld by a high-ranked officer, and by the look of it he might have another legal battle on hand to set things right.
Asked whether the State Police Chief’s permission to arrest five more persons in connection with the case put the investigation team under pressure, Mr. Senkumar said no such permission was needed by the team to arrest any person against whom they have collected evidence. He also said the government had not adversely interfered in the actor abduction case.
