Thiruvananthapuram: Solving long-pending major cases, including the Jisha murder case, apart from improving the investigation skills of the force, are among the priorities of new state police chief Loknath Behera.
“Solving the Jisha case is a challenge to the state police. The brutal killing had created a sense of fear even among small girls. The state police will solve it at the earliest,” Mr. Behera told reporters after taking over as the state police chief.
Mr. Behera, who probed many sensational cases during his tenure in the CBI and the NIA, also said that steps would be taken to improve the investigation skills of the state police by imparting more training to the officials and introducing modern investigation tools. “We are not following many procedures that the CBI follows for its investigation. Though the investigation skills of Kerala police are much better than that of many other police forces in the country, they need to be improved further,” he said.
Mr. Behera, who was posted as DGP by the LDF government by shunting out Mr T.P. Senkumar, said that the government did not prescribe any specific mandate to him. More emphasis would be given to the safety of women. He also said that emphasis would be given on police-public consultation on sorting out traffic-related issues. Steps to strengthen internal security also need to be enhanced to curb anti-national activities.
Mr. Behera, a 1985-batch IPS officer, took over as state police chief by formally receiving the police baton from ADGP Anil Kanth. He later held discussions with senior police officers. He has five more years of service left.
