Thiruvananthapuram: In his first press conference after Nilambur MLA P V Anvar began firing a virtually non-stop barrage of politically embarrassing charges, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday refused to budge an inch from the controversial positions he had adopted on the issue. In fact, Pinarayi Vijayan sounded more determined than ever to have his way.
Not only will his political secretary P Sasi and ADGP (Law&Order) Ajith Kumar stand protected, but the Chief Minister also hinted that a gold smuggling racket that was thwarted by the actions of the police was out to discredit the government and its police force. A question that he left hanging in the air was whether Anvar had allowed himself to be used as a weapon by these elements.
The first thing the CM made clear during the presser on Saturday was that the ADGP would not be nudged out of his perch. "No one is going to be removed just because someone has levelled an allegation," the CM said.
And this is also a defiant repudiation of the CPI's demand to shift the ADGP to an insignificant post. The CPI had raised the ideological issue of retaining in a crucial post a senior cop who had met top RSS leaders. The CPI stand was that the ADGP's rendezvous with leaders of the RSS, the Left's biggest adversary, was a political issue and not a question of official misconduct to be decided by a police investigation.
The CM clearly did not view the issue through the prism of ideology and even seemed to suggest that more than the fact that the ADGP had met the RSS leaders, it was important to understand why he met them; LDF convenor T P Ramakrishnan had also adopted a similar stand.
"The investigation (on the ADGP's visit) is going on. Once the report is ready, and if it is seen that he (ADGP) has acted beyond his remit, appropriate action would be taken," the CM said. He also said that the probe by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) had not necessitated the removal or transfer of Ajith Kumar. Nonetheless, he hinted that the ADGP would be removed if some merit is found in the charges against him during the preliminary probe conducted by the VACB.
He also emphatically ruled out any action against his political secretary, P Sasi, who, it was widely speculated, was Anvar's target. The CM said that Sasi was doing "exemplary service." "He cannot do anything that is unlawful," the CM said, insinuating that some of the demands Anvar might have made to Sasi were unreasonable in law.
The Chief Minister also said that at least one charge Anvar had made against the ADGP was not supported by evidence. Anvar had alleged that the ADGP had taken money to prevent the arrest of the owner of an online channel. "I verified, but I was not able to corroborate the charges," the CM said.
Pinarayi also used a police report to debunk another major Anvar charge that the police kept a portion of the smuggled gold it confiscated. This was a charge hurled mainly at former Malappuram SP, the now-suspended Sujith Das. The CM quoted the police report to rationalize the weight loss. When the gold is first seized, it would be covered in cloth, mixed with other compounds, or even pasted on fabric. Once gold is extracted from the form in which it is smuggled, and that too in the presence of the carrier, its weight reduces. In one case, where the gold came tightly wrapped in cloth, the loss of weight after separation was nearly 500 grams.
Further, the CM suggested that the smugglers would want to discredit the police. "They would want the smuggling to go on smoothly, without hindrance," the CM said. "The police have been told to take strong measures against the smuggling of gold, drugs, and hawala money," the CM said.
He made his displeasure with Anvar clear. Pinarayi said he had, through his office and emissaries, tried to prevent Anvar from talking to the media. "He finally declared that he would meet me after conducting his third press conference," the CM said. "And we met only for five minutes at my office, contrary to the general impression that we were together for half an hour," the CM said, a clear message that he had no intention of placating Anvar. The CM said Anvar should have first given his complaint to the party and the Chief Minister's Office before going public.
He was especially critical of Anvar's action of recording his conversations with police officers. "Is that how a people's representative behaves," he said. "Anvar does not have a Left background, and that shows," the CM added.
