Police play hide and seek over protection at AKG Centre

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Police is playing hide and seek when it comes to the provision of free security to AKG Centre, the CPM State Committee office, for the past 10 months in violation of norms.

Though two policemen guard AKG Centre at its entrance and another is deputed 30 meters away, a Right to Information (RTI) Act reply by the police says only one personnel is deployed on duty, taking turns. But the fact is that the state committee office of the ruling party has the protection of six policemen around the clock.

The rule is that if policemen are required for private security duty, the private party who seeks the same must deposit their expenses, including salary, in advance. Despite this, the police department is giving free service of six policemen who draw a salary of over Rs 50,000 each.

While the police maintain that the CPM has not sought the security on record, they fail to provide satisfactory answers as to what basis is the free security being extended. The official reply is that such a matter doesn’t come under the purview of the RTI Act.

The police have not been able to submit the chargesheet in the case related to the throwing of crackers at the party office.

The AKG Centre was given the protection of seven policemen in June last, following the SFI attack on the office of Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad. When they were standing guard, the crackers were thrown at the building on June 30 night. The permanent guarding of the building by the police started the next day. After groping in the dark for two months, two Youth Congress workers were arrested in the case. The Crime Branch which probed the case says a third person involved in the conspiracy in the case had escaped to the Gulf and the chargesheet in the case can be submitted only if he too is nabbed.

Questions were asked as to how many policemen stand guard, on what basis, and who pays their salaries before the Police Headquarters, etc as per the RTI Act. However, they excused themselves, saying only the City Police Commissioner can provide the answers. The office of the Commissioner then lobbed the application to the Cantonment Police Station. The reply from the Cantonment Police Station was that only one person had been put on duty as per the orders from above. It’s learned that the other two on duty are from AR Camp under the City Police Commissioner.

The hide-and-seek play by the Police Headquarters and the Office of the Commissioner of Police took place despite the fact that these three are paid salaries by the Office of the Commissioner of Police. The question on ‘the criteria for deploying policemen for guarding party offices’ received the answer “the information not available.” They are also not sure how long the protection will continue to be given.

Though party offices were granted protection by the police following the AKG Centre attack, all except that for the AKG Centre, were withdrawn in one day. The KPCC headquarters of Indira Bhavan was attacked one week prior to the AKG Centre attack, but no protection was given to it by the police.