While the Congress and the CPM were accusing each other of having a secret affair with the BJP, KPCC president Mullappally Ramachrandran dropped another bombshell on Tuesday.
Last week, during a public meeting, the former Union minister of state for home had alleged that when Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan appointed Loknath Behera as state police chief he was following the orders of prime minister Narendra Modi. The chief minister responded by making fun of Mullappally, saying he was virtually jobless during his Union home minister days. “No one is going to believe his charge that Behera was appointed DGP as compensation for giving a clean chit to both Narendra Modi and Amit Shah in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case. I am not the kind of person who signs where Modi asks me to,” Pinarayi said.
Mullappally has now repeated the charges with even more vigour. “Why was the undue haste shown to appoint Loknath Behera as DGP? What was the compulsion behind the appointment,” he asked. Mullappally said Behera was appointed with lightning speed. “After the chief minister met the prime minister in Delhi, he returned to Thiruvananthapuram in quick time and, within a few moments, Behera was appointed the DGP removing the serving DGP T P Senkumar, and that too after superseding four senior DGPs,” Mullappally told reporters here on Tuesday. “When Kodiyeri Balakrishnan was the home minister, he had introduced an amendment that a DGP should not be removed from office for at least two years. Even that was not followed,” Mullappally said.
The KPCC president had a set of questions for the chief minister. “Why did Behera fall from the high position he had in the National Investigation Agency? Why was he asked to go on leave before his term ended? Has the chief minister ever checked the credentials of Behera before he was so hastily appointed the DGP,” Mullappally asked.
Nonetheless, the Congress chief in Kerala was not willing to answer any of these questions himself. Mullappally had earlier said he was privy to the files that prove that Behera had absolved Modi and Shah of the Ishrat Jahan murder case. “I have my limitations. I won't say anything as it would be a violation of my oath of office,” he said.
The chief minister had earlier asked why the KPCC chief was hurling such allegations at this juncture. Mullappally said he had questioned Behera's appointment the very next day after it was made. “It is just that only now my statements have got wider publicity,” he said.