KOCHI: The Union minister of state for tourism Alphons Kannanthanam has sought a CBI probe into the abduction and murder of Kevin as more evidence to a complete systemic failure of the state police emerged. Speaking to reporters after visiting Neenu, his widow, on Saturday, he said the CBI probe had become essential as police officials were also culprits. The Union minister pointed out that an official in the rank of ASI alone would not be in a position to facilitate kidnapping. High ranking officials are involved in the incident, and it would be better the probe is handed over to the CBI.
He also referred reports about the role of the former Kottayam district police chief. The failure of the policing system to act promptly has been exposed further as the special branch wing failed to alert higher officials. Sources connected with the investigation said the special branch DySP reported it to the district police head only in the afternoon, many hours after the victim's family approached the police to rescue him.
The special branch police, supposed to be privy to all major and minor developments in a locality, was utterly oblivious and the report given by the DySP to the Kottayam SP was also misleading, sources said. The report given by the DySP to the SP said one of the abducted persons had escaped and the other will follow soon. The SP had briefed the chief minister when the latter sought a report based on the inputs from the special branch.
The sequence of events from Saturday midnight reveals the special branch officials remained clueless about the incident. Residents of the Mannanam had informed the Gandhi Nagar police about the killers storming the house and abducting Kevin and his relative Aneesh soon after that in the wee hours of Sunday. Father of Kevin reached the police station early morning. Neenu also reached there around 10, followed by Anish.
The Gandhi Nagar police registered an FIR based on the statement of Aneesh around 11.30 am. The special branch report, however, failed in capturing the gravity of the event and tried to portray it as a dispute between two families. The investigation team failed to locate Rehana, mother of Neenu, also an accused. The probe team feels she is hiding in Bengaluru with the help of her relatives.
