DGP Mohammed Yasin mistakes revenue minister for agriculture minister
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Police intelligence chief DGP Mohammed Yasin embarrassed the political circles on Wednesday by going to the residence of Revenue Minister E. Chandrasekharan and asking where is Agriculture Minister V.S. Sunilkumar’s house. However, Mr. Yasin, who hails from Andhra Pradesh, attributed the faux pas to his driver’s mistake and his Hindi-inflected Malayalam. Mr Chandrasekharan wondered whether a police officer who could not identify a minister was heading the intelligence, a crucial post. Mr. Yasin had on Tuesday evening fixed an appointment with the agriculture minister at 7 a.m. on Wednesday for seeking Mr Sunil Kumar’s permission to shift the Thrissur special branch office building, which is in a bad shape, to a nearby building of the agriculture department. Mr Sunil Kumar is also the local MLA.
On Wednesday morning, Mr. Yasin went to the revenue minister’s house, ‘Lyndhrust’ near Cliff House. On seeing Mr. Chandrasekharan, he reportedly asked him whether it was not the agriculture minister’s residence. The minister replied that Mr Sunil Kumar was residing near Cantonment House. Mr. Yasin immediately proceeded towards ‘Grace,’ Mr Sunil Kumar’s house. Mr. Yasin told DC that he was talking over phone while travelling and hence did not notice that the driver was proceeding on the wrong route. The driver was not very familiar with the city roads as he was not from Thiruvananthapuram.
“I used to go to Cliff House regularly for intelligence briefing for the chief minister. Hence, the driver might have taken that route. Moreover, since my Malayalam is not that fluent, there might have been some communication error too,” he said. Mr. Yasin also said that he knew all ministers very well. “The agriculture minister is more familiar to me as I had served in Thrissur, which is the minister’s native place.” His meeting with the minister was fruitful as he promised to provide alternative place for the special branch office, he said.
