Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who holds the home portfolio, on Monday came under severe criticism from leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and United Democratic Front (UDF).
The leaders said the police could have saved Kevin P Joseph, who was found dead in a stream near Thenmala in Kollam district, if it had acted on time.
Kevin, a newly married man from Kottayam, was allegedly abducted by an armed gang sent by his wife's relatives on Sunday early morning. The death of the 23-year-old man, who was kidnapped along with a relative from Mannanam in Kottayam, has triggered widespread protests by political parties and the victim's family.
Kevin's wife, Neenu Chacko, alleged that Kevin P Joseph died due to police laxity as it refused to institute an investigation on the basis of her complaint on Sunday. The BJP and UDF have called for a dawn-to-dusk hartal in Kottayam district on Tuesday.
BJP state general secretary K Surendran on Monday took to Facebook to say that chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan is responsible for the death of Kevin.
He said that all such things are happening because of the policy of making the state police as a tool of the party.
"The DYFI members gored out the eyes of Kevin. The police was against this marriage from the beginning. The police, heeding to the words of the DYFI members, even tried to talk the girl out of the marriage. Though she cried and begged in front of them, the police did not listen to her," he said.
Slamming the LDF government for the crime, BJP leader M T Ramesh said the real culprits in the case were the Home Ministry and the CPM.
The biggest law and order issue the state faces today is posed by CPM when it takes over 'quotation'. The police didn't pursue Kevin's abductors as they were CPM members, he alleged.
Ramesh sought a judicial probe into the honour killing and asked chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan to give up the Home Ministry.
KPCC president M M Hassan has said that the Home Ministry in the state is absolute failure, adding that chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan who has the charge of the department must give it up.
He added that it was because the police was busy arranging for the security for the CM that resulted in the death of Kevin.
Leader of opposition Ramesh Chennithala urged the CM to quit the Home portfolio in view of such incidents in the state due to 'inefficient policing.'