Union Minister of State for Home Mullappally Ramachandran has said that the leakage of confidential details of the police investigation in some recent cases should be viewed seriously.
Inaugurating a district conference of the Kerala Police Officers’ Association here on Saturday, the Minister hit out at what he called the “black sheep” in the police force in the State. Ethics demand that police officers should not disclose confidential matters relating to investigations even to their spouses and children, he said lamenting the leakage of such matters in recent cases was an indication that there were disreputable elements in the force. Though the Kerala Police are a model for the entire country, real culprits involved in political murder cases are often not arraigned as accused because of the unholy alliance among police officers, politicians, and criminals.
The State government’s decision to hand over further investigation into the K.T. Jayakrishnan murder to the Central Bureau of Investigation exposed the failure of the Kerala Police that probed the death of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha leader. Investigations into political murder cases in Kannur had often excluded the real assailants as the police arrested proxy accused as per the ‘list’ provided by politicians and anti-social elements. The Minister said that the State had witnessed a disclosure by an accused in a murder case during its investigation that many of those arrested and convicted in the Jayakrishnan murder case were not the real assailants.
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Mr. Ramachandran also flayed the tendency of the police to give VIP treatment to some people who were arrested in cases. Political affiliation of the accused should never be allowed to influence the police officer, he said. He also criticised the Kannur Jail authorities, alleging that the prison had been brought into disrepute with the convicted prisoners there freely allowed to use cell phones and other facilities. No other prison elsewhere would allow this, he added. Association district president P. Chadnrashekharan presided.