Thrissur: Most cases of official corruption harm the interests of people and rarely do incidents occur where the sufferers are animals. In one such unique case, the Vigilance Department in Kerala has detected widespread fraud in the purchase of puppies, dog food and medicines for the canines at the State Dog Training School attached to the Kerala Police Academy in Thrissur.
Following the report submitted by the Vigilance to the government late last year based on a confidential investigation, the Home Department suspended S S Suresh, who is the assistant commandant at Kerala Armed Police-III Battalion and nodal officer of the dog training centre.
The Vigilance had launched the inquiry after receiving a complaint and also found that Suresh took special interest to appoint the District Lab Officer to treat the dogs at the Academy. He also gave instructions to purchase dog food from a particular private business institution in Thiruvananthapuram.
Moreover, the puppies at the Academy were bought at exorbitant prices from Punjab and Rajasthan, said the Vigilance report. These prices were much higher than those paid by other police forces, the report added.
Another finding of the Vigilance was that the dogs were being trained at camps in places such as Kuttikanam which lacked sufficient infrastructure even though the Academy at Thrissur had facilities to train 125 canines.
In November 2022, the Vigilance had sought permission from the government to check the records at State Dog Training Centre in Thiruvananthapuram to verify whether Suresh had engaged in financial misappropriation. This was because all official orders related to the Training Centre in Thrissur are issued from Thiruvananthapuram.
The Government, while approving the request of the Vigilance under Section 17A of the Prevention of Anti-Corruption (Amendment) Act, also ordered the suspension of Suresh, pending inquiry.
