Police trashes former DGP Senkumar's complaint against journalists

Kerala police has closed the case against two journalists registered on the basis of a complaint filed by former DGP T P Senkumar. The police, in a report filed before the Judicial First Class Magistrate, said the charges were false.

Senkumar had filed a complaint with city police commissioner Balram Kumar Upadhyay alleging that the two - Kalapremi chief reporter Kadavil Rasheed and Asianet senior coordinating editor P G Suresh Kumar - had hatched a criminal conspiracy against him. Rasheed was also accused of attempting to manhandle Senkumar.

That the police would soon dump Senkumar's case was clear when Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told the Assembly on February 3 that he had sought an urgent report from the police on the issue. He was responding to opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala's taunt on the "selective alertness" of the police.

“They delay their response when a man desperately calls for help but will swiftly take action when a former DGP registers a false complaint,” Chennithala had said, comparing the police's allegedly slow response in coming to the aid of Sangeeth Kumar, a farmer who was killed when he blocked the sand mafia from stealing sand from his plot.

“I am happy that the opposition has at least now understood Senkumar's true colours,” the chief minister said. Removing Senkumar from office was one of the first things that Pinarayi did after taking over as chief minister and home minister. The opposition UDF, too, had no love lost for the former DGP after he aligned himself closely with the Sangh Parivar.

The incident that provoked Senkumar happened during a press conference held at the Press Club in Thiruvananthapuram on January 16. The former DGP was making allegations against the SNDP supremo Vellapally Natesan, and he had been talking for nearly an hour, when Rasheed, who was seated far behind, asked the former DGP why he had failed to notice Natesan's failings when he was the DGP.

Enraged, Senkumar asked Rasheed whether he was a journalist and ordered him to come up to the dais. When Rasheed tried to explain his stand, people who had accompanied Senkumar rushed dangerously towards Rasheed. Journalists had to intervene to prevent Rasheed from getting manhandled. Later, journalists told Senkumar that Rasheed was a cancer patient.

However, Rasheed filed a complaint with the Cantonment police against Senkumar. When police booked a case against Senkumar, he filed a counter-complaint accusing Rasheed and Suresh of launching a criminal conspiracy against him.

Asianet's P G Suresh Kumar was not even at the press conference. Senkumar complained against him for a WhatsApp post that was critical of his behaviour.