Thiruvananthapuram: Even Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has serious doubts about the behaviour of the Peermade police in the days leading up to the death of Raj Kumar on June 21. Not his cabinet colleague M M Mani, the power minister and CPM's Idukki strongman.
“I would like to know where the accused was before the police took him into custody. It is a mystery,” Mani said in the Assembly on Monday. Even earlier, Mani had hinted that Kumar was tortured by someone else and not the police. The power minister even admonished the police for not apprehending the men who handed Raj Kumar to the police. Mani's stand had provoked suspicion that there were moves to let the policemen off the hook and heap the blame on locals outside.
According to the Jail DGP's report, Raj Kumar was taken into custody only on June 15. But there are eyewitness statements that testify that Kumar, along with two women, were taken into custody by the police on June 12. Mani's argument is that before June 15 Raj Kumar was not with the police but with a set of Congressmen.
“Members of the Congress party are behind the financial fraud that involved Raj Kumar. Instead of finding the real culprits, it is unfortunate that the Congress is trying to implicate the Idukki SP and poor me in this case,” Mani said in the Assembly on Monday.
Strange ways of police
Later, though Mani was not chastised directly, Pinarayi Vijayan made it clear that Idukki SP K B Venugopal was accountable for what had happened. The SP had earlier said that he had no knowledge of Raj Kumar's custody. “If someone was in illegal detention for some days, the police chief in the district should have been aware of this,” the chief minister said in the Assembly.
Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala said all political parties, including the Left, have questioned the integrity of the Idukki SP. “The CPI district secretary Sivaraman himself has openly expressed his displeasure with the SP,” Chennithala said.
The chief minister also felt it strange that a man as seriously ill as Raj Kumar was transported by the police from Peermade to Kottayam Medical College and then taken back. “Why should a man so unwell be taken on such a long journey. And why was he not admitted in the Kottayam Medical College,” Pinarayi Vijayan said.
Earlier, while seeking leave to move an adjournment motion on the issue, Congress MLA V D Satheesan said the police were coming up with weird lies. “They say that Raj Kumar was taken to Kottayam Medical College but had to be taken back because they could not get an OP ticket,” Satheesan said.
Cooperative mystery
The Congress leader said police in Idukki was under the control of M M Mani. “It is strange that the Idukki SP had feigned ignorance about Raj Kumar's custody,” Satheesan said. “A manhunt has been unleashed in the district under the leadership of the Idukki SP. The SP is Mani's hit man,” Satheesan said. He asked whether M M Mani was the Idukki police chief.
Satheesan said it was also strange that the CPM-led governing body of Pattom Colony Cooperative Bank was unaware of Raj KUmar's activities. It was in this bank that Kumar had deposited the money he had collected from gullible investors. (Kumar had sold a scheme under which a person would get Rs 1 lakh in return for Rs 1000.) “Every evening, money was withdrawn from the account. How can the bank say they were not aware of this,” Satheesan asked. He also alleged that the police were after the money they suspected Raj Kumar had with him. “They were not interested in probing any financial fraud,” he said.
Mani and number games
Satheesan told the House that number four could now be added to the “1,2,3...” comment of M M Mani. During a public speech in Thodupuzha in 2012, Mani had unwittingly boasted about the murders his party had committed. “One was shot dead, the second was beaten to death, and the third was stabbed to death,” Mani had then said.
Satheesan said now the fourth method could be added to this. “Urutti kola.” 'Urutti kola' is a fatal third-degree method employed by the police in which a heavy round wooden or iron rod is forcibly rolled over the body of a person. The autopsy of Raj Kumar's body had found injuries that looked similar to ones caused by 'urutti kola'.
M M Mani but sought to paint him as a victim. He said the then home minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan had attempted to foist four murder charges against him. “I was saved by the courts,” Mani said. “Still, they jailed me for the murder of a person I had not even seen,” Mani said.
Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan intervened to say that the Ancheri murder case was already slapped on him. “And then there came the 1,2,3 speech for which another case was taken,” Thiruvanchoor said. "The video of your speech was leaked to the media not by us but by your own party men," the former home minister added.
Pinarayi's claim, Chennithala's counter
Pinarayi Vijayan side-stepped the opposition charges against Mani. He said strong action would be taken against police officials found guilty. “They would be terminated from service,” the CM said.
Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala then questioned the sincerity of the Chief Minister's announcement. “If you are so keen on terminating the services of criminal policemen why are all the policemen involved in the custodial murder of Sreejith in Varappuzha still in service,” he asked. “A V George, the Aluva rural SP, who headed the Tiger Force that picked up Sreejith has now been promoted and made the Kozhikode city police chief,” Chennithala said.
Police probing police
Chennithala also called for a judicial probe into the death of Raj Kumar. “It is improper to ask the police to probe a crime that the police itself had committed,” Chennithala said. Satheesan said a DySP in the special investigation team was earlier charged with taking bribes in a medical admission case.
“A judicial probe by a sitting judge has to be ordered,” Chennithala said. The Chief Minister then asked whether a judicial probe could delay the investigation. “Let the crime investigation go on but don't waste time to announce a judicial probe,” Chennithala said.
