Thiruvananthapuram: The government has decided to bring in an ordinance to deny promotion to police officers facing disciplinary action in connection with grave charges.
The Cabinet has approved amending 101 (6) of Kerala Police Act 2011 which states that departmental disciplinary action will not be treated as a bar for the promotion of a police officer. By scrapping this particular clause, the government has paved the way for reining in criminals in uniform.
Till now, the disciplinary action prescribed under 101(6) of the Act, including fine, recovery of loss caused to government from salary, warning, censure and barring increment with cumulative effect were not considered as a disqualification for promotion.
It may be recalled that in July 2018, a panel headed by DGP Crime had submitted a report to the state police chief recommending action against 59 police personnel who were found to be involved in crimes, including attempt to murder and sexual assault. About 10 of them had indulged in crimes which could have warranted their dismissal from force.
Many of the police personnel were facing charges of forgery, attack on complainants, illegal financial transactions, attempt to murder and sexual offences against children.
The figures made available by the home department in April 2018 following an RTI query had exposed the dark side of the force. As many as 1,129 police personnel, including 10 DySPs, eight CIs and195 SI/ASI -level officers were involved in criminal offences. Based on this report, the state police chief constituted the high-level panel to go into these cases. Ultimately, 387 police personnel were found prima facie guilty. The list prepared by the committee after a detailed inquiry revealed that 59 police personnel were involved in extremely grave offences.
