The Home Department is understood to have taken a serious view of ‘certain procedural lapses’ in ensuring the security of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on his arrival at the police stadium in Kannur on Sunday to attend a public function there.
The role of 15 officers, including two Superintendents of Police, was under scrutiny. However, this need not necessarily result in any departmental action against the officers, for the government did not want the police force in the politically sensitive district to be demoralised.
The Chief Minister had sustained injuries when his motorcade was pelted with stones, allegedly by Opposition activists, as it entered the police parade ground there.
Additional Director General of Police, North Zone, Sankar Reddy, who reviewed the police action in Kannur, is reported to have told the government that any baton charge or use of force at the venue would have caused the law and order situation in the entire district to deteriorate. It could have possibly led to spontaneous agitations, including road blockade, in the district.
The Home Department is reported to have taken a divergent view. Official sources said that there ‘were some procedural lapses,’ including the perceived failure of the district law-enforcement machinery to keep at least one road to the stadium devoid of protestors and fully sanitised to facilitate speedy movement of the VIP motorcade.
