CM Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Secretary Nalini Netto feel the embarrassment
THIRUVANANANTHAPURAM: The Supreme Court verdict to reinstate Mr T.P. Senkumar as state police chief is a major setback to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and an embarrassment to Chief Secretary Nalini Netto. Mr. Vijayan who was sworn in as the Chief Minister of May 25, 2016 decided to shunt out Mr Senkumar on May 30. Ms. Netto, the then additional chief secretary (home), set the stage for it by citing the lapses in the Jisha murder case investigation and justifying the police following the Puttingal mishap. Kerala Police Act's section 97(2)(e) that provided for removing a state police chief before the two-year tenure on charges of 'causing serious dissatisfaction in the general public about efficiency of police in his jurisdiction' was invoked.
With the Supreme Court scrapping these charges against Mr Senkumar, his allegations that he was removed owing to political vengeance by the chief minister and that Ms. Netto's report against him was manipulated stand vindicated. Mr. Vijayan had even openly flayed Mr. Senkumar as an inefficient officer in the Assembly. "Senkumar was removed not because Jisha was murdered. It was because he was not fit to hold the state police chief’s post. It is evident from his recent activities," Mr. Pinarayi had said in the last session. Mr Senkumar had alleged that his removal was owing to political vengeance over the probe into the T.P. Chandrasekharan and Abdul Shukoor murder cases in which CPM leaders were involved.
In a reply to a query under the RTI Act, the police maintained that there was no lapse in the initial investigation into the Jisha murder case, contradicting government stand that the lapse in the initial probe into the murder case was one reason for Mr Senkumar's removal. Though Mr Senkumar’s petitions were rejected by the Central Administrative Tribunal and the High Court earlier, the High Court had stated that the report against Mr Senkumar on the Puttingal and Jisha murder cases was untested. Mr Senkumar, who was removed from the state police chief post through an order issued on June 1, was posted as chairman and managing director of Kerala Police Housing Construction Corporation. He was later posted as director, Institute of Management in Government.
