The Supreme Court on Monday enquired whether Kerala Director General of Police Lokanath Behara has been "removed".
The court's query was in connection with the case of alleged suicide of engineering student Jishnu Pranoy, who was found hanging in his college hostel in January.
The case has brought the Pinarayi Vijayan government under a cloud and rocked the State after his mother and family members raised allegations of delay on the part of the State police in investigating the Thrissur based Nehru College of Engineering management.
"For five days, the mother of the boy, Jishnu, was on a hunger strike. We saw in the papers. So has he [Behera] not been removed?" a Bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta asked Kerala counsel G. Prakash.
Mr. Prakesh said the issue had been resolved and there was nothing more to it.
The question from the Supreme Court comes a day after the arrest of the vice principal of the engineering college.
The Bench was hearing a petition filed by Mr. Behara's immediate predecessor T.P. Senkumar, who was unceremoniously ousted a couple of days after Mr. Vijayan came to power in the State.
Mr. Senkumar has accused the Chief Minister of removing him for "political motives" and sought his reinstatement at the helm of the police force in the State.
He said that the Chief Minister's justification that his poor performance as DGP in the Puttingal fire tragedy and Jisha murder case as the reason for removal was bogus.
