Wrongdoings by police won't be protected, stringent action will be taken: Kerala CM

Thiruvananthapuram | Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday asserted that no police officer who has committed a wrong would be protected and stringent action would be taken against such persons.

His assertion came in response to the opposition Congress-led UDF's scathing attack in the assembly against the Kerala government over a series of alleged custodial torture incidents in the state and demand for relinquishment of the Home portfolio by the CM.

Leader of Opposition in the state assembly V D Satheesan also demanded to know whether Vijayan would remove from service the police officers accused of beating up a Youth Congress activist at Kunnamkulam police station in 2023.

Citing lack of a clear answer from the CM regarding the demand, the opposition boycotted the day's remaining proceedings in the assembly and walked out.

Satheesan also said that till the time the government removes from service those officers, two UDF MLAs -- Saneesh Kumar and Ashraf -- will sit on an indefinite hunger strike outside the doors of the assembly hall.

Earlier in the day, the Congress-led opposition claimed in the assembly that the CM's stance of treating police misconduct as isolated incidents has caused the downfall of the state home department, Congress legislator Roji M John said in the assembly.

Congress legislator from Angamaly, Roji M John, attacked the CM and the Home Department while moving an adjournment motion notice against the alleged incidents of custodial violence in the state.

He also alleged that police officials with close ties to the CM and the ruling CPI (M) are operating with impunity in the state.

Similar allegations were levelled by other UDF legislators, including Satheesan, during the over two-hour-long discussion on the notice.

Hitting back at the opposition, the MLAs of the ruling front claimed that police atrocities were more frequent during the UDF rule.

Vijayan, during his response, said the police in India and in Kerala continued the same anti-people stand that they adopted during British rule.

"All that changed for the first time in Kerala after a government was formed here. There was a major change in the policy regarding police functioning," he claimed.

The CM further said that the majority of police personnel in the state have adopted the changes in the functioning of the force, but there were still those who were hanging on to the past practices.

"Wrong acts by such persons will not be accepted or justified by the government. They will not be protected and stringent action will be taken against them. That is our stand," he said.

He said that this was clear from the fact that in the last nine years of LDF rule, it has removed 144 officers from service for misconduct or corruption.

"Neither the UDF nor any other state in the country can claim to have taken action on such a scale," he claimed.

He said that isolated incidents of misconduct by police should not be used to tarnish the image of the entire force for "temporary political gains".

After Vijayan concluded his response, Satheesan said the CM has not answered whether the officers who beat up the Youth Congress activist would be removed from service and therefore, "we are boycotting the House proceedings and two of our MLAs will be on an indefinite hunger strike outside the doors of this hall".

During his speech, Satheesan cited various alleged instances of police brutality and claimed that the police stations in the state have been turned into gulags of the Stalinist era in the erstwhile Soviet Union.

He said that if the CM was going to act like Stalin, his actions would be questioned.

The opposition UDF raised the custodial torture incidents during the Zero hour, weeks after the CCTV footage of the alleged torture of Youth Congress leader Sujith at Kunnamkulam police station two years ago surfaced.

They wanted the matter of police atrocities to be discussed in the House after halting other proceedings, and the ruling LDF accepted it